Led by junior Lauren Aumiller's five goals, the Virginia women's lacrosse team easily defeated No. 6 Duke, 18-6, on Saturday at Koskinen Stadium to earn its first ever ACC regular season championship. The No. 4 Cavaliers brought their season record up to 10-2, including a perfect 3-0 ACC record.
Aumiller, who also tallied two assists, is now tied for third in Virginia's all-time scoring list. However, the school record she set for assists in a season by a freshman was toppled by teammate Amy Appelt. Appelt had four goals and two assists in the match, bringing her up to 17 assists on the season, topping Aumiller's mark from the 2000 season.
Yet it was solid play from the entire team, including Virginia's defense, that allowed the Cavaliers to defeat Duke (6-4, 1-2 ACC) by such a wide margin.
"All of our attackers contributed. I think Tiffany Schummer in the defense and Elizabeth Pinney came up with huge plays, and [goalie Andrea Pfeiffer] made some key stops," Virginia head coach Julie Myers said. "I don't think any one person stood out above the crowd."
Virginia struck first 2:23 into the match, when sophomore Morgan Thalenberg took a pass from Appelt and found the lower right corner of Duke's net. Duke followed with two straight goals, including a quick counter-attack sequence that culminated in senior Kelly Dirks' off-balance goal at the 10:13 mark. That tally gave Duke what would be its only lead of the night. Then Virginia's attack, ranked first in the ACC with 14.8 goals per game, kicked into gear.
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Senior Gina Sambus scored off a great through ball from Aumiller to start Virginia's run 10:50 into the game. By the time sophomore Caitlin Banks tallied a goal at the 17:48 mark, the score was 9-2 in Virginia's favor. This amazing run encompassed eight consecutive Cavalier goals in a span of just under seven minutes. Appelt scored two goals in this stretch, including a play where she burned a Blue Devil defender with a nifty spin move and fired the ball past goalie Kristin Foster's head.
Aumiller, senior Molly Cangemi, and freshman Cary Chasney added goals off fouls near the Duke cage. Yet the most impressive goal during this stretch, and the goal that best demonstrated the ease with which Virginia penetrated Duke's injury-plagued defense, was the final goal of the Cavalier run.
Banks took the ball from 40 yards out and cut straight through the Blue Devil defense en route to her tally. Although Duke managed one more goal before halftime, Virginia went into the break with a commanding 9-3 lead.
"We are a fast break team - that's something we really have been emphasizing the whole year starting back in September," Myers said. "We have midfielders that can get the ball down pretty quick, so it doesn't take us a whole lot of time to be able to generate a shot. And our shooters were on today. It was definitely a Virginia day."
The Cavaliers came out strong in the second half as well. Two quick goals by Aumiller gave Virginia an 11-3 advantage less than four minutes into the half. Duke battled to keep the score close, with a nifty backhand shot by Dirks bringing the score to 13-6 with 15 minutes left in the match. From that point on, however, Virginia was able to dominate ball possession, and went on to finish off the game with five consecutive goals. The final goal of the match, in which Aumiller took a nice pass from Appelt and buried the ball in Duke's cage, was ironically the score which moved Appelt passed Aumiller for the freshman assist record.
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