After a difficult stretch of Spring Break games that included a victory against Penn State and losses to No. 1 Maryland and No. 5 North Carolina, the Virginia women's lacrosse team plays two more teams ranked in the top 20 this week. The Cavaliers believe they have learned their lesson from the two conference losses as they try to prove that their 2010 NCAA tournament appearance was no fluke. To do so, they must hold their own against William & Mary tonight.
"I definitely think we can [match last year's team]," redshirt junior attacker Ainsley Baker said. "Even though we've already lost three games, it's a long season. We have a lot of room to improve."
The No. 11 Cavaliers (3-3, 0-2 ACC) hosted Maryland to begin Spring Break and were on the wrong side of an 18-6 blowout against the Terrapins as the defending national champions surged to an early 4-0 lead and never looked back. Led by senior midfielder Laura Merrifield and junior attacker Karri Ellen Johnson, who combined to tally nine goals, the Terrapins buried the Cavaliers with 13 second-half goals after holding a slim 5-3 lead at halftime.
"We had lots of opportunities and we just didn't seize them when we needed to," coach Julie Myers said. "As soon as Maryland gets a lead, they're hard to stop and we got rocked a little bit. We played too much defense as they kept going to goal."
Two days later, the Cavaliers commemorated the life of former midfielder Yeardley Love in a pre-game ceremony to retire her jersey and raise a flag at Kl
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