Olympic Sports Roundup: Women’s, Men’s Lax and Softball Pick Up Wins
Posted on Saturday, Mar. 23, 2019, 10:29 pm
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Courtesy UVA Sports Media Relations
The No. 8 Virginia women’s lacrosse team picked up a 17-12 victory over No. 13 Duke on Saturday at Klöckner Stadium.
Senior Maggie Jackson led the Cavaliers (9-3, 1-3 ACC) with four goals. Freshman Lillie Kloak and sophomore Ashlyn McGovern scored three goals apiece. Charlotte North led the Blue Devils with four goals.
Junior goalkeeper Charlie Campbell made nine saves for UVA. Virginia scored 14 of its 17 goals on Duke’s starting goalkeeper Gabbe Cadoux, who made three saves.
The Cavaliers jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, netting the half-dozen goals in the first 10 minutes of the game. Duke (7-3, 2-1) ended the run by scoring with 20:59 remaining in the first half, but Kloak reignited the offense with an unassisted goal with 15:17 remaining, the first of four-straight to put the Cavaliers ahead 10-1 with 12:51 remaining in the first half.
UVA went into the break with a 12-4 advantage, but duke came out firing in the second half, scoring three goals in the first five minutes to cut the deficit to 12-7.
Back-to-back scores from Jackson and McGovern stopped the Duke run and gave the Cavaliers a seven-point advantage. A goal from North with 10:12 remaining pulled the Blue Devils to within four, 15-11, as close as they would come the entire game, but Jackson answered almost immediately, pushing the lead back out to 16-11 with 9:38 remaining. Both defenses dug in with the teams scoring just a single goal apiece for the remainder of the contest and the Cavaliers’ picking up the 17-12 victory.
“This was a really important win,” said Virginia head coach Julie Myers. “I loved our first half more than our second half, but I give Duke a lot of credit. They won a ton of draws and they just played with pride in that second half and they made us make some stops. All in all, this was a great team effort for us.”
Duke had a 20-11 edge in draw controls. Virginia outshot Duke 22-11 in the first half, but Duke took three more shots than the Cavaliers in the second half. Jackson’s four goals are a season high. This was her third hat trick of the season and 16th of her career.
Kloak had her fifth hat trick of the season and her second straight. McGovern had her third hat trick of the season. Avery Shoemaker extended her streak of games in which she has scored a goal to 23 straight. She scored two goals with two assists.
Junior Sammy Mueller scored two goals with an assist. Sophomore Katie Railey scored her first goal of the season. Freshman Courtlynne Caskin scored a goal with an assist. Junior Nora Bowen scored a goal, her fourth straight game in which she has scored.
Virginia will take on No. 1 Boston College (11-0, 2-0 ACC) next Saturday at 12 p.m. in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
No. 9 UVA Upends No. 15 Johns Hopkins To Reclaim Doyle Smith Cup
No. 9 Virginia walked away with an impressive 16-11 triumph over No. 15 Johns Hopkins on Saturday night at historic Homewood Field, returning the Doyle Smith Cup to Charlottesville for the first time since 2016.
The game began as a see-saw battle that boasted seven ties and five lead changes, but the Cavaliers (6-2), trailing 8-7 early in the third quarter, went on a 9-2 run to take a commanding six-goal lead with 7:36 left to play.
The five-goal win was also UVA’s largest all-time win over the Blue Jays at Homewood Field. The previous best was four goals in 1997 (16-12).
Michael Kraus scored an unassisted goal after dodging from X to tie the game at 8-8 with 7:50 left in the third quarter. The Kraus goal started a 3-0 UVA run that gave the Cavaliers the lead for good. Ryan Conrad continued the run when he took the ball to the rack in transition with 7:26 left in the third quarter.
Dox Aitken capped the spurt when he dodged to space and got his hands free with 5:01 left in the third, giving UVA its first two-goal lead of the game (10-8) since the Cavaliers led 2-0 to start the contest.
Johns Hopkins (4-4) narrowed its deficit to one goal, 10-9, after Evan Zinn found nylon at 4:40 in the third. However, UVA quickly reeled off four-straight goals to take a commanding 14-9 lead. Aitken capped the streak when he completed his hat-trick on an Ian Laviano pass, scoring an extra-man goal with 9:51 left to play.
Saturday’s game was the 94th meeting between UVA and Johns Hopkins and the 73rd season in a row the Cavaliers and Blue Jays have met in lacrosse.
The game is the 14th annual battle for the Doyle Smith Cup, a spoil since 2006 that goes to the regular season winner in the series. UVA is 9-5 all-time when the Doyle Smith Cup is at stake.
UVA owns its first five-game winning streak since opening the 2014 season 6-0, and has registered wins at Johns Hopkins and at Syracuse for the first time since 2009. Kraus extends his streak of games with at least one point to 40, which ranked No. 4 in the nation entering the weekend among active streaks.
With three goals, Aitken moved into a tie with Matt Poskay (2003-06) for No. 4 all-time at UVA among midfielder career goals with 88. Aitken now has 113 career points, which gives him sole possession of fifth-place all-time by a UVA midfielder, passing Kyle Dixon’s (2003-06) 112 points.
Petey LaSalla scored a career-high two goals.
“This is a group that truly believes in each other,” said coach Lars Tiffany. “The fact we are coming out of the halftime locker room playing our best lacrosse is a reflection of our conditioning. We have really tried to focus on training with purpose. Everyone works hard, but are you training with a purpose? I think we have doing a better job of balancing our training in the weight room, but we are also doing more sprints and you are seeing us not deteriorate as the game goes on, but get stronger.
“What I was really happy with in the second half was our ride. We challenged our attackman at halftime and we take a lot of pride in the way we ride. At halftime Hopkins was perfect and I told Ian [Laviano], Michael [Kraus] and Matt [Moore], we need more pressure and create some more errant passes. That was a big part of our ability to surge ahead in the second half the way we did.”
Virginia returns to action when in-state foe Richmond comes to Klöckner Stadium for a Friday-night tussle. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra.
Virginia Evens Series with Dramatic 2-1 Win
Senior Lacy Smith launched her 12th home run of the season and Virginia held off Duke for a 2-1 victory to even the series on Saturday. Smith’s two-run blast came in the bottom of the first after Hayley Busby led off the day with a single to left. The home run brings Smith one shy of tying the Virginia single-season record.
In the circle, freshman Aly Rayle was dominant for the Cavaliers (16-12, 5-3 ACC) in working a career-high 5 1/3 shutout innings. The right-hander scattered six hits, all singles, while striking out one Blue Devil. Rayle (6-2) did not surrender a walk in earning the victory.
The top of the seventh featured plenty of dramatics as Duke (13-18, 4-4) used an infield single, hit-by-pitch and double to score one run and put runners at second and third with no outs. With Virginia clinging to a 2-1 advantage, Allyson Frei induced a ground ball to third for the first out of the inning.
The next Blue Devil chopped a grounder to short, where Arizona Ritchie made a backhand stab and fired home to cut down the would-be tying run for out number two. Frei did not waste any time in recording the third out, getting pinch-hitter Amelia Wiercioch to foul out to Busby at third on the first pitch to secure the win.
Busby singled to lead off for the Cavaliers and Smith followed with her two-run shot to right center to put Virginia up 2-0 in the first.
Duke’s lone run of the game came on Brianna Butler’s double to right in the seventh inning. Frei earned her second save of the season, working the final 1 2/3 innings of the game. Smith’s home run extends her reached-base streak to 18 games.
Busby finished 2 for 4 at the plate and was the only Cavalier with multiple hits. Kate Covington went 1 for 3 and added a diving grab on the warning track in center field to save a pair of runs in the sixth inning. The game marks the first time this season Virginia has won when being out-hit (8-7) by an opponent.
Virginia and Duke conclude the series with a noon first pitch in the rubber game on Sunday at The Park.
