BLACKSBURG-It was a tale of two halves for the Virginia women's lacrosse team yesterday at Virginia Tech, featuring only the best of times.
The Cavaliers put on a clinic at Rector Field House, defeating the Hokies 17-9. Tech (4-6) had no answers for the power, speed and control displayed by the Cavs.
No. 7 Virginia (9-4, 1-2 ACC) got an outstanding performance from freshman midfielder Lauren Aumiller, who led the way for the Cavaliers with five goals and four assists.
"We came out really hard in the first half, especially defensively, and caused a lot of turnovers," Aumiller said. "It was a really good effort all around."
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Virginia got on the board first when midfielder Jill Hansen scored off a feed from senior defender Ashley Widger. The quick-strike Cavalier offense then got two more goals from midfielder Amy Fromal before four minutes had elapsed.
Fromal, who had a hat trick against Duke Saturday, finished with four goals and two assists.
"I've seen Amy play for the past four years and we all know she's got some speed," Virginia Tech coach Brooke Ireland said. "It's hard to put a matchup on someone who's just got that natural talent."
After Fromal's second goal gave the Cavs a 3-0 lead, the Hokies settled down and attempted to get back in the game. Freshman attacker Lisa Tsimbidis got Tech on the board in the eighth minute and senior midfielder Dawn Will brought the Hokies within a goal two minutes later, but that was the closest they would get.
Aumiller scored three times to lead Virginia on a 7-3 run to take a 10-5 lead into halftime, then came out and took control of the clock in the second half. Kate Bjorke scored for Virginia Tech in the first minute of the half but the Hokies didn't score again for 17 minutes as the Cavs' monopolized control of the ball.
"We were trying to take some time off the clock and trying to spread it out and make them play a different defense" Virginia coach Julie Myers said. "If you can make a team change how they defend you, then you're doing the right things."
The Cavaliers committed 19 unforced turnovers, but their defense was stifling during the whole game. Two of Tech's goals came in the last 1:30 of the game. The Virginia defense, led by senior Ashley Widger, combined for 35 ground balls.
Tsimbidis scored once in the second half for the Hokies to complete a hat trick, but the Cavs managed to shut down Will, Virginia Tech's leading scorer. The senior had no assists and notched her only goal of the game in the first half.
"I'm definitely excited about scoring 17 goals, but we made a lot of mistakes, unforced turnovers, that we really need to start cleaning up" Myers said. "We don't play again until next Wednesday. We're going take the end of this week as a breather and then start tightening it up for [practice] Monday"
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