Women’s Lacrosse: Big second half lifts No. 10 UVA in 15-11 win at Pitt

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The No. 10 Virginia women’s lacrosse team picked up a 15-11 road victory at Pitt on Saturday at Highmark Stadium in Pittsburgh. After trailing by one midway through the third quarter, Virginia scored five straight goals to secure the road victory.

Mackenzie Hoeg led the Cavaliers (7-2, 3-1 ACC) with a career-high five goals and an assist. Rachel Clark scored four goals and Ashlyn McGovern scored three. Morgan Schwab had five assists and also scored a goal.

Abby Jansen played the second half in goal, picking up her first career victory.

The Cavaliers scored two goals in the first two minutes of the game to set an early tone. Hoeg tallied a hat trick by the 3:02 mark of the first quarter as Virginia jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the opening frame.

Clark opened the second quarter the same way she started the first, by scoring a goal, building the UVA lead to 6-2. Pitt (3-6, 0-4) answered with three-straight goals to pull within one, 6-5, with 9:30 left in the half. Hoeg’s fourth goal, on Schwab’s fourth assist, ended the run, giving UVA a 7-5 lead with 8:07 remaining. The Panthers again pulled to within one on a free position goal with 2:29 remaining. Dylana Williams tied the game by bouncing in a shot with 27.8 seconds remaining in the half to send the game into the break at 7-7.

Clark opened the second half with a goal at the 10:20 mark, but Pitt answered 17 seconds later to tie it again at eight. The Panthers took their first lead of the game, 9-8, on a goal by Ava Washington with 6:44 left in the period. Ashlyn McGovern tied the game with 6:03 left in the quarter and Abby Manalang put UVA back in the lead, 10-9, with a score with 3:18 left.

Virginia took its 10-9 lead into the fourth quarter. Clark added to the advantage with her fourth goal of the game and Hoeg scored her fifth to give UVA a 12-9 edge with 12:24 left in the game. Jaime Biskup scored her lone goal to make it a 5-0 run for the Cavaliers and a 13-9 game. Pitt ended the run with 8:40 left in the game, but McGovern scored back-to-back goals in a 37-seconds span to build up a five-point advantage. Pitt scored its final goal with 51.1 seconds remaining to make it a 15-11 final score.

FROM HEAD COACH JULIE MYERS

“It’s important to come up to Pitt and come away with another ACC win. I thought it was a bit of a grind today. I thought it really challenged us at pretty much every level and in each quarter so it was nice to see us stick together and do just enough to come up with a W. And it’s an important one to get. We’re going to look at the film and try to help simplify a little bit of the decision making. Think that there are moments of the game and stretches that we make it a little bit harder than it needs to be. So we need to identify that in film and teach the girls and then really get back on the field and just clean it up. Again, we’re grinders and we’re working hard, but I would like to see it a little bit smarter and more efficient along the way.”

NOTES

• Virginia held a 21-9 advantage in draw controls, 7-1 in the fourth quarter
• Aubrey Williams won 11 draws, her third game with double-digit draw controls this season
• Rachel Clark scored the first goal of the first, second, third and fourth quarters
• Mackenzie Hoeg’s six points was a career high as well as her five goals. It was her second-straight game scoring three or more goals
• Hoeg scored her five goals on eight shots
• Hoeg also had five ground balls. Ashlyn McGovern had six
• Hoeg won a season-high eight draw controls
• Morgan Schwab followed her season-high 6-assist performance at Richmond on Wednesday with five in this game. It was her third five-assist game of the year
• Abby Jansen allowed four goals while making five saves
• Ashley Vernon played the first half in goal, allowing seven goals with four saves

UP NEXT

Virginia closes out a four-game road swing at No. 7 JMU on Wednesday at 5 p.m.