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No. 16 women's lacrosse tops Hokies in season finale

10 different Cavaliers score in 10-5 win to bring squad back to .500

Before the opening draw control Wednesday evening against Virginia Tech, the Virginia women’s lacrosse team’s six seniors—attacker Caroline McTiernan, midfielders Annie Thomas and Erin Laschinger, defenders Megan Dunleavy and Lelan Bailey, and goalkeeper Kim Kolarik—stood with their parents on the grass of Klöckner Stadium. They held bouquets and framed jerseys for photographers and accepted high-fives from teammates and coaches.

Then, the group of seniors, who have made the NCAA Tournament every year since they arrived in Charlottesville, led the way in No. 16 Virginia’s 10-5 win against the Hokies. The Cavaliers (8-8, 1-4 ACC) jumped out to a 6-1 halftime lead and weathered a second half Virginia Tech rally to earn their first conference victory of the year and return to .500 in their final game of the regular season. With the win, Virginia earns the fifth seed in next week’s ACC Tournament. The Cavaliers will play No. 9 Duke in the first round on April 25 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Coach Julie Myers started every one of her seniors, and her decision proved wise from the game’s opening minutes. Laschinger, who entered the game with one goal, one assist, and no starts in her Virginia career, opened the scoring with 26:18 left in the first half. She was set up on the play by none other than Dunleavy, the Cavalier co-captain who, prior to Wednesday, had started 14 games this year without recording an assist.

Kolarik, meanwhile, made an early save on a shot from Virginia Tech sophomore attacker Megan Will, the Hokies leading-scorer and the only freshman to make the ACC All-Tournament team in 2011. Kolarik made five saves in all in her first appearance since the Cavaliers’ March 16 win against No. 17 Princeton.

“It’s been hard, after starting for two-and-a-half seasons, to break my hand and have to sit, but now I’m back and it is great,” Kolarik said. “This week in practice has been really good. I feel like it is getting better every day. I’m 100 percent and I’m happy because it is just in time for ACC’s.”

Virginia’s younger players made their own mark on the Cavaliers’ 18th win in 19 games all-time against the Hokies (8-6, 0-4 ACC). Sophomore midfielder Morgan Stephens scored off a restart 36 seconds after Laschinger’s goal, and junior attacker Ashlee Warner responded to Will’s first and only goal of the night with her own score at 12:52 in the first half. Warner’s upper-right corner tally started a four-goal Virginia run to close the first half.

The sky became darker and darker in the first minutes of the second half. The lowered temperature and threatening wind for a moment seemed to parallel the increasingly tense game on the field. Virginia Tech’s 3-1 run in the first 10 minutes after halftime narrowed Virginia’s lead to 7-4.

The Cavaliers restored order out of a timeout, however, reeling off three unanswered goals and holding the Hokies scoreless until sophomore attacker Meg Bartley took a pass from Will and beat Kolarik with 6:08 to play. Her goal provided the final margin.

Ten Cavaliers scored against the Hokies. Sophomore attacker Casey Bocklet and Warner, the team’s one and two point-scorers, respectively, each had one assist and one goal. Stephens and sophomore midfielder Courtney Swan had four draw controls apiece and helped limit Bartley, first in the ACC with almost five draw controls per game, to three on the night.

“I would say that we were pretty desperate for a win,” Myers said. “The players have done a nice job of working really hard and staying focused. As hard as it has been to lose games, they have really stayed positive and stayed together.”

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