Less than nine minutes into the Virginia women's lacrosse team's final regular-season ACC contest Saturday, senior defender and captain Claire Bordley set the tone, scooping up two ground balls and using her stick to cause a turnover -- the first of Virginia's 18 of the day in a 12-4 win against Boston College. With the victory, Virginia clinched a top-two finish in the ACC, guaranteeing the team a bye in the ACC Tournament and a share of the regular season conference title.
No. 4 Virginia (10-2, 4-1 ACC) knew Boston College (3-7, 2-2 ACC) would be a very physical opponent that would force the Cavaliers to play a game to which they were unaccustomed. On the defensive end, the Cavaliers generally consolidated their defense around the net, affording the opposing offense some room away from the goal. The Virginia defense's early physical play was a preemptive move by Virginia coach Julie Myers to help the Cavaliers to the win.
"We really did a lot of possession things where we wanted two defenders on the offense," Myers said, referring to Virginia's preparation for the contest. "We used football pads a lot of times and we said. 'You're not playing Virginia defense right now, you have to make us feel your pressure.' We didn't let the attackers run away from it. We made them stay in the grid area so [the defense] could prepare."
The preparation clearly paid off. In addition to the 18 Eagle turnovers -- 12 of which occurred during the first half -- the Cavaliers also won the battle of possession, controlling 18 ground balls to the Eagles' 11 and 11 draws to Boston College's seven. Senior goalkeeper Kendall McBrearty allowed just four goals and stopped six Boston College shots.
Senior attacker and captain Megan O'Malley set the tone for the Cavalier offense, scoring two of Virginia's first three goals and adding another in the second half for a hat trick.
The Cavalier attack also battled strongly in defensive roles. Numerous times Boston College junior? goalkeeper Katie Monaghan took possession of the ball and held it, bringing the game to a snail's pace. Virginia, however, refused to allow the Eagles' slow style of play to dictate the game, leading Monaghan to cause many turnovers throughout the game.
"If we didn't score, we wanted to capitalize on transition and pressuring them and getting the ball back, so they couldn't hold the ball and they got stuck again on defense," O'Malley said. "We really pushed up and sent our attackers towards the goalie. We moved our defenders up so we were really all over the midfield, trying to get the ball back. We worked on that all week in practice."
The unusual assertiveness on both defense and attack helped five Cavaliers score while another contributed with assists. Junior attacker Jenny Hauser led the squad with four goals, while O'Malley and sophomore midfielder Brittany Kalkstein also earned a hat trick. Junior midfielder Ashley McCulloch netted one and added three assists. The Virginia scoring column was rounded out by junior attacker Blair Weymouth's contribution of a goal and an assist, and a single assist from senior attacker Kaitlin Swagart
With the score 6-1 at halftime, Virginia expected Boston College to come out with a faster offensive pace because of the five-goal margin, but the Eagles stubbornly maintained their deliberate attacking style.
"At halftime, [Myers] said to start looking for them to go to goal now, and they can't really sit on the ball when they're down that many goals," Bordley said. "They started to go to goal a little more, but I guess that's not really their style and they're not used to forcing it, so I was a little surprised that they didn't try to force the issue a little more than they did in the second half. We weren't too concerned about it; we had the lead and there wasn't much for us to worry about, just let them make their mistakes."
The win Saturday guaranteed Virginia at least a share of the regular-season ACC crown, which it may have to share with No. 3 Maryland, depending on the results of the Terrapins' final two ACC matches. The Eagles, meanwhile, dropped out of the race for the top spot in the conference with the loss.
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