Women’s Lacrosse: No. 12 UVA holds off No. 11 Notre Dame, 16-13

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

No. 12 Virginia broke open the game with eight goals in the second quarter and held off a run by No. 11 Notre Dame to win 16-13 on Saturday afternoon at Klöckner Stadium.

UVA (8-3, 4-1 ACC) outscored the Irish 8-1 in the second quarter to lead 11-4 at the half. Notre Dame (6-3, 3-2) made a couple of runs, including a 4-0 run in two minutes in the fourth quarter, but Virginia’s lead proved to be took much for the Irish.

Senior Jaime Biskup and sophomore Rachel Clark led the Cavaliers with five goals apiece. Senior Kiki Shaw and junior Mackenzie Hoeg both added two goals, while graduate student Ashlyn McGovern and junior Morgan Schwab both scored one goal. Jackie Wolak led Notre Dame with six goals and two assists.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Biskup scored the first goal for the Cavaliers after Notre Dame went up 1-0.
• Hoeg had back-to-back goals with the Cavaliers trailing 2-1 to give UVA its first lead of the day.
• Notre Dame scored just before the end of the first to tie it up 3-3 heading into the second period.
• UVA opened the second with three-straight goals by Shaw, McGovern and Clark to lead 6-3. Notre Dame’s only goal came at the 7:39 mark in the second to cut it to 6-4.
• Biskup scored back-to-back goals, Clark had two and Schwab added a goal as Virginia closed the first half on a 5-0 run to take the 11-4 advantage into the half.
• Notre Dame scored the four of the first five goals to open the second half and outscored UVA 3-1 in the third period to cut it to 12-8.
• Clark had two-straight goals and Biskup scored her fourth to put UVA ahead 15-8 with 7:54 remaining.
• Biskup had the lone goal for UVA in the final seven minutes of the game as the Irish went on a 4-0 run to cut it to 16-13 with 2:03 to play.
• Virginia blocked a free-position shot by Notre Dame with a minute to go and recovered the ball to hold on to the win.

NOTES

• The Cavaliers led in shots (29-26) and draw controls (18-14). Notre Dame had the edge in ground balls (12-10) and saves (9-7).
• Junior Aubrey Williams led UVA with six draw controls and sophomore Abby Manalang had a career-high five draws.
• Sophomore Kate Miller notched her third consecutive game with three assists to lead UVA in the assist column.
• McGovern had two assists, marking a career high.

FROM HEAD COACH JULIE MYERS

“It was great to get a big lead early, but I think we rested a bit on the cushion, defensively, so we need to close a game out better than that. This was a really important game for us to win. The last four games since that Carolina game, we have had a lot of games on the road and come up short. Beating Pitt was important, but now another top-10 win is good momentum and will be important come postseason and ACC tournament bracketing.”

UP NEXT

Virginia will travel to No. 1 Syracuse next Saturday for a 6 p.m. opening draw.