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George Mason awaits in final regular-season game

After dropping a spot in this week's rankings to No. 5, the Virginia women's lacrosse squad will close out its regular season tonight at 7 at Klöckner Stadium. Having lost to then-No. 6 Georgetown before taking down then-No. 16 Johns Hopkins last week, the Cavaliers bring a multitude of emotions into their matchup with No. 12 George Mason. The Patriots will be Virginia's third-straight ranked opponent.

Virginia (11-3, 4-1 ACC) is a perfect 6-0 in Charlottesville this season, including three wins against ranked opponents. This game will be important to the Cavaliers because of the added emotion of senior night: Goalkeeper Kendall McBrearty, defenders Claire Bordley and Alice Hughey, and attackers Megan O'Malley and Kaitlin Swagart will all make their final regular-season start in a Virginia uniform.

Having just achieved the program's 400th victory and Julie Myers'100th in Charlottesville as head coach, Virginia faces its ninth ranked opponent of the season, against whom the team is 5-3 this season. George Mason (10-2) also presents the Cavaliers with their sixth in-state matchup. The Cavaliers have beaten all five previous challengers from the commonwealth.

None of the Virginia players are concerned with these statistics surrounding the game, however; they are all squarely focused on the Patriots, who have never beaten Virginia on the road.

"Mason is huge," McBrearty said. "They're like 10-2 and they beat Hopkins. It's a huge game for us. We have to be sure not to let down against in-state opponents because they just take it to us. We just have to be strong."

Myers expressed a similar sentiment.

"I think George Mason has been playing some great lacrosse," she said. "They've been really very competitive and have won some big games. They're going to come in and really try to take it out of us."

Myers added that she thinks all the preparation -- combined with playing under pressure and against defenses that double-team and trap -- will serve the Cavaliers well in the game.

Despite all emotion of senior night, team members are ready to focus on the task at hand: winning.

"It's definitely a big game, being our last regular-season game, senior night, and George Mason is having a great year," junior midfielder and leading scorer Ashley McCulloch said. "They're a really scrappy, feisty team who will play hard against us, so it's going to be a big game"

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