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Women’s lacrosse edges out Navy in its season opener

The No. 8 Cavaliers rallied to defeat the No. 15 Midshipman in overtime Saturday

<p>Sophomore midfielder Ashlyn McGovern scored a career-high five goals against No. 15 Navy.</p>

Sophomore midfielder Ashlyn McGovern scored a career-high five goals against No. 15 Navy.

Virginia women’s lacrosse edged out Navy 14-13 to seize its first victory of the season in the opener Saturday. The win gives Virginia its sixth victory in seven meetings with Navy.

The No. 8 Cavaliers (1-0, 0-0 ACC) secured a win at the No. 15 Midshipmen (0-1, 0-0 AAC) at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium after a closely-fought game that could not be settled in regulation. The two teams were knotted at 13-13 at the end of 60 minutes of play. However, the Cavaliers used some overtime magic to win the game and start the season 1-0.

The Midshipmen dominated most of the game. Despite an early 2-1 deficit, Navy used four straight goals — all in under five minutes — to take control.

Virginia was held scoreless for over 18 minutes before senior midfielder Nora Bowen and

junior midfielder Ashlyn McGovern responded with a pair of goals — sandwiching a sixth Navy goal — to cut the Midshipman’s lead to 6-4 at halftime. 

At half, Navy senior midfielder Natalie Irwin scored half of the team’s six goals. On the other side, Virginia’s four goals came from four different Cavaliers.

While Virginia scored the first goal of the second half, Navy responded with back-to-back scores to push the lead to 8-5. However, the Cavaliers finally came alive and scored three straight goals in response. With 18:38 left in regulation, the Cavaliers had tied the game.

The two teams battled for the lead throughout the second half.  

Virginia was trailing 13-11 with just over four minutes remaining in regulation when Bowen scored her third goal of the match to cut the deficit to one. Bowen then assisted McGovern’s game-tying goal with just 34 seconds left, sending the game improbably to overtime. 

While Navy won the draw in overtime, senior midfielder Anna Hauser caused a turnover to give the ball back to the Cavaliers. Bowen then found McGovern in space once again and the Maryland native produced the game-winning goal. 

The game marked a career-high five goals for McGovern. Bowen also had a notable performance with three goals and three assists. On defense, junior goalkeeper Charlie Campbell made eight saves, and the Cavaliers led 20-12 in ground balls. While Navy edged out the Cavaliers in draw controls, 18-10, the Midshipmen were marred by their 26 fouls. 

“I feel like we stole a game off of Navy, because they out-played us,” Coach Julie Myers said. “It was great to see that we made huge plays when we really needed to make a stop or score a goal. The team really believed in each other and they were able to make it happen.”

Virginia will next travel to California at Laird Q. Cagan Stadium to face No. 20 Stanford Friday, who lost to No. 10 Denver in their season opener last Saturday. 

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