For only the third time this season, the Virginia women's lacrosse team found itself trying to bounce back from a tough loss, after falling to Maryland in the first round of the ACC Tournament last Friday. In last night's contest against Loyola, the No. 5 Cavaliers (12-3) applied strategic defense and used a 6-0 second-half run to win 13-10 and avoid the possibility of losing consecutive games for the first time this season.
"It was a great team effort for us to rise above and dig out of our ditch," Virginia coach Julie Myers said. "I think Loyola's probably one of the best teams we've played all year. For us to be able to climb out of our three-goal deficit was really very nice."
The No. 4 Greyhounds (13-2), who recently won the Colonial Athletic Association championship, got a first-minute goal from senior defender Suzanne Eyler. The Greyhound lead would not last long, as Virginia junior Lauren Aumiller, the team's leading scorer, got the Cavaliers on the board with just under four minutes gone.
Before Virginia could get too excited, Eyler scored again, but Aumiller connected on a shot just before the 22nd minute. She has now scored in 18 consecutive games and last night became Virginia's all-time leader in draw controls.
Other than Aumiller, the Cavaliers struggled to get by the accurate goalkeeping of CAA Defensive Player of the Year Tricia Dabrowski, who leads the nation in save percentage and is second in goals-against average. In fact, the Cavaliers' 13 goals were more than any Loyola opponent had managed all season.
In addition to Aumiller's four first-half goals, freshman attacker Cary Chasney and freshman midfielder Courtney Young each scored, but it was Loyola who found itself with a 9-6 halftime lead.
Virginia freshman Amy Appelt, who also has scored in every game this season, quickly got the Cavaliers on the board, and senior midfielder Molly Cangemi's shot off the post nearly cut the Virginia deficit to one. Loyola went up three again on a goal by midfielder Jaclyn Borrone, but then it was time for the Cavaliers to take over.
"The second half I feel like we moved better," Myers said. "We were a little bit more spread out and shared the ball better."
The amazing Cavalier run started with an unassisted goal by Aumiller, her fifth of the game. The Cavaliers buckled up on defense and aimed for high shots that Dabrowski simply could not deal with.
Just 12 seconds after Aumiller's goal, Cangemi scored her first of two consecutive goals after an assist from Chasney.
Appelt gave Virginia the lead at the five-minute mark and put in a shot on a beautiful setup from Aumiller 25 seconds later. With 11 seconds to play, sophomore midfielder Morgan Thalenberg scored with her ninth goal of the season.
"To hold such a good team just one goal in a half was huge," she said. "Everybody stepped up. Everybody took care of a lot of the little things in the second half. It was a great team effort"
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