The No. 9 Virginia women’s lacrosse team is now 11 games into its 2013 season, and though the Cavaliers have registered wins against No. 17 Loyola (Md) and No. 19 James Madison, they have yet to prevail in the ACC. With losses to No. 1 Maryland, No. 3 North Carolina and No. 6 Duke, Virginia finds itself in last place in the conference. This Saturday’s game at ACC rival Boston College presents an opportunity for a Cavalier breakthrough.
“BC is going to be a hungry team, too,” Virginia coach Julie Myers said. “They’re in the same spot that we’re in, in terms of needing to come up with a significant win in that ACC category.”
The Eagles (4-6, 1-2 ACC) have been up and down this season, in no small part because of their challenging schedule. Boston College opened the year with wins against Holy Cross and Vanderbilt but then lost three games in a row. Virginia (6-5, 0-3 ACC) can somewhat relate to the Eagles’ experience. The Cavaliers fell to North Carolina and No. 5 Syracuse by a single goal each, while Boston College also owns defeats against those teams and undefeated Maryland, which downed both teams by an eight-goal margin.
The Boston College offense centers on a duo of sophomores, attacker Covie Stanwick and midfielder Mikeala Rix, who were named to the All-ACC team as freshmen in 2012. Stanwick, sister of Virginia men’s lacrosse legend Steele, set the record for assists by an Eagle freshman, while Rix scored the second-most goals by a freshman in program history. This year, the two players rank first and third in the conference in goals per game, respectively, and Stanwick trails only Maryland’s Alex Aust in points per game.
Boston College, however, has surrendered a conference worst 12.1 goals per game and sits last in the ACC in ground balls, turnovers and assists.
“I mean, if people were talking about BC, they’d say that their defense is still trying to find their way,” Myers said. “But we need to make sure that they don’t find it on Saturday. [We need] more aggressive play, taking some chances and really believing in each other and going hard through our sets, running through our plays hard.”
Virginia matched up with the Eagles twice in 2012, winning 12-10 in Charlottesville during the regular season and 13-8 in Durham, N.C. in the ACC Tournament’s first round. That Eagles team, however, featured graduate student midfielder Kristin Igoe, a four-time All-ACC selection who ended her career as the school’s all-time leading goal-scorer.
“I feel like Boston College is always a good game, and it’s really important right now coming off another ACC loss [to Duke last Saturday],” junior goalkeeper Liz Colgan said. “I think that our losses have been close, and I think that we’re definitely still a top competitor. And I think we’re looking to stand our ground in the ACC, especially with the tournament coming up in a few weeks.”
Virginia won 16-12 against Old Dominion on Wednesday night in Norfolk. The Cavaliers received a boost from freshman attacker Kelly Boyd, who scored her first three goals of the season in a back-and-forth first half that closed with Virginia up 8-7.
Virginia pulled away by scoring the first six goals of the second half. Old Dominion (3-7, 1-0 CAA) recovered to score five of the game’s last seven goals, including three in the final two minutes, but by then it was too far behind to complete a comeback.
Boyd was one of four Cavaliers — along with sophomore attacker Casey Bocklet, junior attacker Ashlee Warner, and sophomore midfielder Courtney Swan — to achieve a hat trick. Virginia will look to repeat that prolific offensive performance against Boston College Saturday.
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