Saturday afternoon was tough sledding for No. 21 Virginia women’s lacrosse as they fell decisively to No. 2 Stanford in a game that was not close from the beginning. The Cardinal (6-0, 3-0 ACC) won the first draw of the season in Klöckner Stadium — Virginia played its previous two home games at the practice field — and they didn’t look back, running the score up to 10-2 before the Cavaliers (2-4, 1-1 ACC) found their footing.
With 4:10 left in the first half, freshman midfielder Cady Flaherty netted her fifth goal in six games, cutting the Stanford lead to seven, a score that held for the remainder of the half. Flaherty, a three-time All-League selection in the New York State Catholic High School Athletic Association, hasn’t missed a beat since arriving at the University, with points in five of her first six games.
The Cardinal won the draw again coming out of halftime, but a green card on junior defender Ellie Johnson put Virginia man-up, and junior attacker Addi Foster took advantage, putting home her 12th goal of the year. The lead was down to six, but it took just 53 seconds before junior midfielder Kate Galica beat Stanford goalkeeper Lucy Pearson for her seventh score of the season, narrowing it to five.
The Cavaliers failed to remain disciplined though, and after the teams traded a pair of goals — including Flaherty’s second of the game — the Cardinal potted two goals before the end of the third on an extra man opportunity and a free position shot. This brought the score to 13-6 as the quarter closed, and Stanford increased their lead to eight on yet another free position shot early in the fourth.
The teams traded duos of goals down the stretch with junior attacker Madison Alaimo and sophomore midfielder Payton Sfreddo netting their 11th and second goals of the year respectively for Virginia.
While the score was not pretty — 16-8 in favor of Stanford — the Cavaliers were competitive defensively, going 17 for 17 on clears and holding a 17-10 edge on the draw thanks largely to Galica’s 11 controls. Head Coach Sonia LaMonica highlighted this postgame.
“I was proud of our draw unit today and Kate Galica with how she dominated,” LaMonica said. “It was unfortunate that we couldn't use that to our advantage today, on the offensive end and capitalize.”
Indeed, the offense was another story. The Cavaliers turned the ball over 15 times this afternoon and put just 13 shots on goal. Coach LaMonica noted this disparity as well.
“We had a lot of empty possessions,” LaMonica said. “It's not for a lack of skill or talent, but we've got to find a way to mentally flip that switch and fight harder. We need to play with a little more fight on offense.”
The Cavalier’s first home game of the season was also this year’s annual One Love game. The match was played in honor of One Love, an organization that works to end relationship abuse and create healthier relationships. This year, the recipient of the Yeardley Reynolds Love Endowed Scholarship was senior defender Nicole Cruthirds, showcasing her character off the field.
Despite some rough sailing so far this season for Virginia, the Cavaliers have hung around in difficult games, and they will need to continue to do so with road tests at Pitt and Florida State coming up this week. There’s still plenty of time for Virginia to build an NCAA Tournament resume, and it starts Wednesday in Pittsburgh, Pa.
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