The Virginia men's lacrosse team didn't exactly burst out of the gate in last night's game against Radford. But the Cavs made up for it later.
The No. 2 Cavaliers (6-1) used a 10-goal run in the second and third quarters to distance themselves from the overmatched Highlanders (1-6), winning 15-3 at Klöckner Stadium.
Senior midfielder Jay Jalbert contributed three of his game-high four goals during the run, and freshman midfielder Chris Rotelli scored both of his goals during the streak.
"I never really got on them," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. "This is a really mature team, they knew what was going on. I'm glad we picked it up a little bit. We actually got them in practice a little bit [Monday], much more so than we normally would in a pre-game day. I really thought we might be a little bit tired. Credit to Radford, though, they came out and showed a real spark."
Radford had just scored back-to-back goals to bring the Highlanders within two tallies at 4-2 when Virginia junior midfielder Hanley Holcomb found the net to start the streak. Sophomore attackman Conor Gill, junior midfielder Will Quayle, Jalbert and Rotelli followed with goals before senior attackman Drew McKnight beat Radford goalkeeper Brent Wilson with just two seconds remaining in the first half.
"It's kind of hard to say our offense wasn't clicking, but we just weren't getting what we needed," Jalbert said of the team's start. "As soon as we got into a groove on offense, we had the ball on offense, we won faceoffs, the defense played well and we just started rolling. Not to sound overconfident, but it was just a matter of time before that happened."
The shell-shocked Wilson was replaced by backup Shane King in the second half, but the Cavaliers still scored the next four goals to put the game out of reach.
Radford attackman Billy Kauffman broke the streak with a goal, but it was too little, too late.
The Cavalier defense came up big during the run, fueled by the return of senior All-American Ryan Curtis.
"We were definitely excited to have Ryan back, and that elevated the intensity today," Cav sophomore defenseman Mark Koontz said. "We just tried to keep playing well like we have all year, keep playing good team defense, keep talking through all the things they were throwing at us, and we did a good job of that."
"Ryan's one of our leaders, and I think we missed him on Friday," Starsia said. "We were glad to have him back tonight. I could see him take over the defense in the pre-game warmup. We need Ryan on the field. We got by a good Maryland team on Friday without him, but we wouldn't want to go much further."
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