Lacrosse Falls To UVa 13-5

By Diane Revalski
April 23, 2009

Virginia Tech women's lacrosse fell to the University of Virginia 13-5  in the opening game of the Atlantic Coast Conference Women's Lacrosse Championship.

"The score didn't reflect how well we truly played," said sophomore Joanna Kiser.

Virginia Tech was chosen to host the ACC Championship this year for the first time in the programs history. According to sophomore Mary-Kate Larkin, the ACC teams always rotate the hosts.

University of Virginia was seeded fourth in the tournament and is the reigning ACC champion. These two teams have never faced off in an ACC tournament, and the Hokies have never beaten the Wahoos in regular season. In their first meeting this season the Wahoos won 19-3.

"We knew going into this game that UVa had only lost to Northwestern by one a few weeks ago, and Northwestern is pretty much the best in the country but at the same time UVa lost to Old Dominion University and we beat ODU," said Larkin.

The Hokies have only won one game out of their last 18 against ACC opponents since they premiered in 2005. That win was to Boston College earlier last year.

Therefore, according to Larkin they prepared hard this week. "We worked on settling our attack and long possessions, because the less time they have the ball the less time they have to score and we did a good job of that in the game."

"Before the game my teammate, Julie Wolfinger, said a poem she made up and it got us all pumped up. We were all ready to play and did our special cheer, which I'm not allowed to reveal," laughed Kiser.

After the first half the score was 7-1, Virginia. UVa's Kaitlin Duff, Jenny Hauser, Ashley McCulloch, and Julie Gardner all scored off of assists.

Virginia Tech's Caitlyn Wier scored on a free position shot. "I told Caitlyn she had a really good game, and she said 'yeah I decided to throw a few tricks in there and laughed'," said Larkin who was injured and watched her teammates from the sideline.

Virginia Tech drew seven penalties and UVa six in the first half. UVa won seven out of nine draws and had fewer turnovers than Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech had six shots on goal but "we were hitting the pipe a lot," said Larkin. The goalies had an equal number of clears, UVa's Sara Hairfield had one save and Virginia Tech's Kari Morrison had five.

The second half the Hokies began to close the gap. "I think it just took us a little while to get our rhythm," said Larkin.

With 20 minutes left in the half Jessica Nonn was pushed by two UVa players and a time out was called to escort her off the field. According to Wier, "her ankle was sprained."

With ten minutes left in the half the Wahoos again took the lead ten to three. "There was such an adrenaline rush, UVa has always been our rivals and earlier this year we didn't play well against them, so we were still fighting for everything," said Kiser. 

Hokies Rachel Culp and Liz Carpenter scored unassisted, while Wier and Allie Emala scored off of free positions shots.  Then Wier completed her hat trick with an assist from Culp and a dramatic dive to the ground. 

Yet, Wahoos; McCulloch, Hauser, Gardner, Duff, Brittany Kalkstein, Blair Weymouth, and Ainsley Baker all also scored almost all assisted with one free position shot.

Virginia Tech shot 11 times during the second half, many of them going out wide and Hairfield saved five. UVa shot 15 times and Morrison saved six.  There were less fouls in the second half, however, the fouls that occurred usually resulted in goals.

With the win, University of Virginia will advance to play the number one seed University of Maryland.

"We were all sad, but happy at the same time because we played so well and my coach said that our team played with heart and she was so happy about that," said Kiser.

While the Hokies might be out of the ACC tournament, "We are a young team of sophomores and freshmen, so we're going to have a lot of experience next year," said Wier.

The rest of the games will be held this weekend with the championship game on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Thompson Field. Admission will be $5.