Women’s Lacrosse: No. 5 Virginia advances to NCAA second round with 21-6 spanking of LIU

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The fifth-seeded Virginia women’s lacrosse team put on an offensive clinic cruising to 21-6 victory over LIU in the first round of the NCAA Championship on Friday at Klöckner Stadium. The team’s 21 goals mark a program-high in an NCAA tournament game.

Morgan Schwab (1g, 6a) accounted for seven points on the day while Miller (5g) led UVA with five goals. Four Cavaliers recorded hat tricks including Katia Carnevale (4g), Mackenzie Hoeg (3g), and Kiki Shaw (3g). Madison Alaimo did not find the back of the net herself but dished out four assists.

Defensively, Kate Demark led the team with a pair of caused turnovers on a day when Virginia held its opponent to just six goals, its second lowest total of the season.

HOW IT HAPPENED

After over seven scoreless minutes to start the game, it was LIU (11-8) that opened a flurry of scoring in the late stages of the first period. Virginia (15-4) answered back just over a minute later on a Hoeg power-play goal, but LIU regained its lead just 14 seconds later. A pair of solo efforts from Shaw and Miller would give UVA its first lead of the game. UVA would take a 4-3 lead into the second quarter.

Virginia successfully killed off a two-player disadvantage to start the second quarter before Carnevale kicked off an offensive explosion in the second quarter. Carnevale’s goal was the first of five consecutive Cavalier goals to start the second quarter. LIU stopped the bleeding midway through the period, but was answered by five consecutive Virginia goals to close the period as the seventh-ranked Cavaliers went into the locker room with a 14-4 advantage.

Virginia picked up where it left off at the start of the second half scoring the first three goals of the third quarter to extend their scoring run to eight consecutive goals. The strong start to the second half capped a 14-1 run that started in the final minute of the first quarter. UVA would tack on three more goals in the fourth quarter to secure a 21-6 victory.

FROM HEAD COACH SONIA LaMONICA:

“I think we stayed the course. I thought that in first quarter LIU obviously were going to come out firing. It’s the tournament so everyone is excited to be there. I thought we were a little bit slow and a bit hesitant. We weren’t activating off-ball on offense as well as we could, but we talked through that and pushed through that. The second quarter was huge. That’s where we really started to play our game and opened the game up, so I was really pleased with that…Now that we’ve got that game under our belt, I think we will continue to grow our confidence to turn around and see a great contest on Sunday.”

WITH THE WIN…

• Virginia advances to the second round of the NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Championship
• The Cavaliers improve to 15-4 on the season, logging 15 wins for the first time since the 2007 national championship season
• UVA improves to 40-32 in the NCAA Championship, it’s 40 wins are the fourth-most in the history of the championship
• Virginia wins its first-ever meeting with LIU
• Sonia LaMonica earns her third win in the NCAA Championship and first with Virginia

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• Schwab’s six assists are one shy of her career-high in the NCAA tournament and two shy of the NCAA Championship record (8)
• Schwab increases her season assist total to 59—the second most in NCAA Division I
• Schwab is just seven assists away from tying the Virginia single-season assist record set in 1986 by Lindsay Sheehan (66)
• First year, and Charlottesville native, Addi Foster recorded a career-high three points
• Virginia’s 21 goals mark a program-high in the NCAA tournament, surpassing the team’s previous high of 20 in 1999 and 2002
• Five Cavaliers scored their first points in an NCAA tournament game including Carnevale (4g), Dinardo (2g), Foster (2g, 1a), Alaimo (4a) and Finley Barger (1g)
• Virginia scored 10 goals in the second quarter, its highest-scoring period of the season
• The Cavaliers were a perfect 12-12 in the clearing game while forcing LIU into a pair of failed clears.
• UVA committed just six turnovers compared to LIU’s 14
• Virginia won the draw control battle by a margin of 16-11

UP NEXT

The Cavaliers advance to the NCAA second round where they will take on Florida at Klöckner Stadium on Sunday at 1 p.m.