Virginia's 18-3 win over rival Virginia Tech (4-7) can be described only as dominant. The Cavaliers (11-2) never trailed in the game and were in control from the opening draw. In fact, Virginia was able to control most of the draws in the contest, holding a draw control advantage of 16-6.
"Anytime you get that many extra possessions in the game, it's going to be huge," Virginia coach Julie Myers said. "We also dominated, I think, in the groundball area, and there were some dropped passes. We seemed to be able to get extra possessions everywhere we looked."
The extra possessions helped the Cavaliers dominate coming out of the halftime break -- Virginia scored the first nine goals of the second half. The Cavaliers came out of the break with an attacking mindset. While senior Amy Appelt missed out on a chance to score 30 seconds into the half and sent her shot sailing over the head of Tech goalie Nikki Schiavone, sophomore Kate Breslin scored her first goal of the night with a low, hard shot that found the back of the net, keeping the Cavaliers from missing out on the opportunity.
"We definitely knew we had to come out hard," sophomore midfielder Jess Wasilewski said. "So we really wanted to focus and get the momentum going and keep it going until the end of the game."
Virginia went on to score eight more goals before the Hokies found the net. During that stretch, the Cavaliers scored in many different ways -- from eight-meter free shots, to goals based on good passing to just a little bit of luck. Senior Cary Chasney's first goal of the night came after she received a pass from Appelt that may have been directed to Breslin. Appelt was behind the net and sent the ball in the direction of Breslin, who was in front of the net. There was some defensive traffic, but the ball ended up in Chasney's stick, and she quickly flicked the ball into the net to make the score 9-2.
As Virginia built its lead, Myers was able to give some of her bench players time on the field. The new lineup did not miss a beat, and the Cavaliers continued to build their lead.
"Anytime you can give everybody on your team some playing time, you feel good," Myers said. "From a team chemistry standpoint, it's good to be able to reward some players who have been working really hard. But they are really good. We emptied the bench, but they were able to execute."
One of the players put into the game was goalie Kendall McBrearty. The freshman, who has now seen action in seven games, played the final 16 minutes in goal and recorded a save. The save was an interesting moment because the shot came from McBrearty's twin sister, Kady, who is an attacker for Virginia Tech.
"This was one of the first times we had ever really played each other, so I've never really had to do that before," Kendall McBrearty said. "If she had scored, I would have been happy for her, so I know she's happy for me."
The Cavaliers also controlled the first half of the game, tallying the first five goals. The opening run was started when Appelt scored the first two goals of the game. The highlight of the first half, however, came when Tyler Leachman scored to make the score 4-0. Leachman received a long outlet pass from senior Courtney Young and was all alone in a one on one situation with Schiavone.
"I think we just caught them off guard," Leachman said. "There was an opening back there. Court[ney] saw it, and I saw it fortunately at the same time, and she got it down there to me. It's a little lucky because that doesn't happen all the time."
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