In a blowout home season opener, the No. 4 Virginia’s women’s lacrosse team dominated conference rival Virginia Tech 19-3 in Klöckner Stadium Wednesday afternoon.
Virginia, very early on, controlled the game clock as well as the ball. The Cavaliers quickly managed five goals before Virginia Tech could score one.
“We really wanted to make sure that we set the pace and the tone of the game, and our starters did a good job of that — jumping all over the draw controls, really managing our transition and going hard to goal,” Virginia coach Julie Myers said. “We made it really hard for them to even process the ball for more than 30 seconds.”
At the 27:36 mark, freshman midfielder Josie Owen fired the first goal — which, in fact, also was her first collegiate goal. Senior All-American midfielders Blair Weymouth and Ashley McCulloch collaborated on the next two goals.
“It’s our first game, so we were looking to play as a unit: attack and throw out the midfield and transition,” Weymouth said. “We were able to move the ball quickly, and once you get a defense off their feet, then you’re able to find an open player, and it’s easier to score that way. We just executed our attacks the way we wanted to.”
After the Hokies called in for their first time-out, junior attack Whitaker Hagerman made it 4-0. Owen then capitalized on a beautiful transition off a Virginia defensive save with 18:42 on the board. Virginia Tech answered back 30 seconds later with a quick goal from Jessica Nonn.
Virginia refused to allow the Hokies to gain momentum though, allowing only one more Hokie goal in the first half and scoring five more times before halftime. Hagerman, McCulloch and Weymouth combined to score for Virginia, giving the Cavaliers a 9-1 lead at the 6:07 mark. Even with the clock ticking down, the Cavaliers kept their furious pace up, as junior midfielder Marye Kellerman put a goal away off a Hokie penalty.
Not wasting any time, Owen again scored early in the second half, but Hokie senior midfielder Rachel Culp soon countered. This marked Virginia Tech’s only goal of the second half, though, as Virginia went on to score the next eight goals unanswered, ending the game with a commanding 19-3 lead. A pair of freshman midfielders began and finished the streak; Bailey Fogarty struck first and Julie Gardner capped off the scoring with an assist from Kellerman, both earning their first collegiate goals.
In a series of fluid transitions and breakaways, Virginia goals came from nine different players, showing both versatility and depth. McCulloch led the way with four goals and four assists. Overall, the team made its presence known to Hokie senior goalkeeper Kari Morrison, who totaled only 13 stops off the Cavaliers’ 32 shots.
“I think we maintained focus on the little things, worked on ball control, ground balls, watching each pass carefully. Of course this is the first game, we tried to get those first game jitters out,” said junior midfielder Brittany Kalkstein, who won three draw controls and caused three turnovers.
In what proved to be a very defensive game for the Hokies, the Cavaliers’ offensive preparation paid off.
“We took a lot of time preparing for ourselves, making sure we [are] on-game and focused,” Kalkstein said. “We focused on some of [Tech’s] key players, took what we learned from our scrimmages on Sunday and tried to draw from some of the things we did wrong.”
Virginia’s next match is away against Loyola College Saturday in Baltimore.
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