In their first match-ups of the year, the No. 11 women’s lacrosse team picked up a pair of victories. The Cavaliers went on the road Friday against Elon in their first face-off before returning to Charlottesville Sunday to host California.
Virginia vs. Elon
Virginia started the 2022 campaign the same way they started 2021, with a dominating offensive performance versus an out-of-conference opponent — this time, it was Elon. After a back-and-forth first quarter, the Cavaliers (2-0, 0-0 ACC) found their footing and took care of the Phoenix (0-2, 0-0 CAA).
Senior midfielder Annie Dyson opened the scoring for Virginia, and freshman midfielder Rachel Clark followed it up with the first goal of her career to put the Cavaliers up 2-0 early.
In what looked like a game that was going to be a blowout in favor of Virginia, Elon pumped the brakes on that narrative. With a quick 3-0 run in 1:51, the Phoenix managed to crush the momentum of the Cavaliers. However, that would be the only lead Elon enjoyed the entire game.
The Cavaliers rattled off three straight goals of their own to respond, catalyzed by back to back goals from senior attack Ashley McGovern. The Phoenix managed a response goal of their own soon after to cut the lead back down to just a single goal to close the first quarter.
Virginia came out in the second quarter the same way they started the first, with a quick offensive flurry. This time it was a 5-0 run to extend the lead to 10-4, essentially putting the game out of reach.
Dyson, McGovern and Clark all contributed more goals, in addition to sophomore midfielder Mackenzie Hoeg, who scored her first goal of the season. The two teams exchanged two goals apiece to close the second half, as Virginia took a commanding 12-6 lead into the break.
The second half was not much of a different story from the first, as the Cavaliers maintained possession throughout and controlled tempo, en route to a 8-5 second half score to bring the final to 20-11 in favor of Virginia.
Virginia vs. California
Two days after defeating Elon, Virginia bested California in another inter-conference matchup. The Cavaliers took care of the Golden Bears (0-2, 0-0 PAC-12) in dominant fashion to open up the season on a two-game winning streak.
In uncharacteristic fashion, the Cavaliers surrendered the first goal of the game in the early going. Junior midfielder Amanda Morse scored her first goal to get California going early.
Despite the early deficit, Virginia found a way to muster two goals of their own, courtesy of junior midfielder Jamie Biskup and senior midfielder Courtlynne Caskin. The Cavaliers went up 2-1 early, but both offenses went cold as the game went scoreless for the next 10:01 of play. With eight seconds left in the first quarter, California found the first quarter equalizer, keeping it a close game for the beginning.
The Golden Bears would pick it up right away in the second quarter, netting their third goal of the game just 53 seconds into the quarter. Although Virginia appeared to be on their heels early, they would soon find their footing similar to the way they did in the Elon game.
Virginia scored three straight with goals from McGovern, Biskup and junior midfielder Kiki Shaw to start a 8-1 scoring run that bled into the second half.
The Cavaliers would go on to outscore the Golden Bears 11-1 in the second half. Biskup had three of her six goals on the game in the half and Virginia got a huge contribution from Hoeg, who had a second half hat-trick as well.
Virginia starts 2-0 for the fifth straight year as they hope to continue to build on the momentum. The Cavaliers will take on Maryland Friday in Charlottesville.
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