The No. 9 Virginia women’s lacrosse team will play its final road game of the season tonight as the Cavaliers travel to Fairfax, Va. to take on non-conference foe George Mason.
The Cavaliers (9-5, 2-3 ACC) have won two straight games after dropping three of their previous four contests and have played several tough in-state opponents this season. Virginia won in overtime against William & Mary but lost to Old Dominion two weeks ago.
Against George Mason, the Cavaliers will look to not make the same mistake they made before their defeat against the Monarchs.
“I think we have learned our lesson that we can’t take games for granted, regardless of what their record is or what we have done in the past,” senior midfielder Ashley McCulloch said.
The Cavaliers boast a dynamic offensive attack with four players notching 20 or more goals and 10 or more assists on the season. Senior midfielder Blair Weymouth recently recorded her fourth consecutive season with at least 30 goals and 10 assists.
Although producing offensively has not been a problem against most opponents this season, the Cavalier defense has struggled since the team’s early season upset against then-No. 3 Syracuse. Now heading into postseason, Virginia coach Julie Myers has been forced to make some adjustments on the defensive end of the field.
During the team’s last game against Harvard, Myers started senior Sara Hairfield in goal for her second appearance this season. Hairfield recorded a career-high 11 saves en route to the 13-9 Cavalier victory.
With the defense looking like it is getting back on track, the Cavaliers are showing signs of their early season form.
“I think we have started to take steps forward and we are starting to play how I know we can play,” Weymouth said. “I think everyone’s heads are in that place right now.”
The Patriots (5-7, 1-3 CAA) have not posted the same impressive offensive numbers as the Cavaliers this season. Sophomore attack Madalyn Jamison leads George Mason with 26 goals and 21 assists. She is third in the Colonial Athletic Conference in assists per game and fourth in points per game. George Mason enters tonight’s matchup after losing its past three games against CAA opponents Hofstra, Old Dominion and William & Mary.
Given that the Cavaliers split their games against Old Dominion and William & Mary, they cannot count on a victory against George Mason. They only have two more games to iron out the kinks before postseason play, and Virginia will need to use tonight’s game as a tune-up for its regular season finale against four-time national champion No. 1 Northwestern Sunday at home.
“We need to play at a high level of execution with a lot of intensity, fire and emotion,” Myers said. “Those are the things that have been missing from time to time. We have had spurts of it in each game but we haven’t been able to maintain it for 60 minutes.”
Although the Cavaliers have had somewhat of a disappointing season thus far, losing five games in the regular season — something Virginia has not done since 2001 — the team remains confident that it can make a deep run in the postseason and potentially be one of the two teams remaining the day of the national championship.
“I can’t really tell you what is going to happen on May 24 — whether we will be there or not — but I can guarantee that we are going to work as hard as we can to try and be there,” Weymouth said.
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