The Virginia women's lacrosse team took the field yesterday in its first game of the season, facing in-state rival William and Mary in near-freezing conditions. Despite the wind, the No. 7 Cavaliers (1-0) did not cool down, matching their highest scoring total of last year in a 19-13 victory over the No.13 Tribe (0-1).
It was particularly meaningful to win this game after the Cavaliers' 13-10 loss to William and Mary in last year's season opener.
"Last year when we lost to them it was just devastating, so that was on a lot of our minds," midfielder Molly Cangemi said. "That was on a lot of our shoulders. Going into this game we knew that this year we're a lot more confident as a team."
Despite a significant William and Mary crowd, the Cavaliers came out strong in the first half. Defender Lindsey Buchanan connected on Virginia's first shot with just over a minute gone by in the game, setting the offensive tone of the game.
Virginia midfielder Elizabeth Pinney picked up the third Cavalier goal on a catch-and-shoot play before Schneider was fouled by Virginia on the next offensive play. With the ball back in play, Schneider wasted no time in scoring to give the Tribe its first lead of the game at 4-3.
From that point on, however, the first half belonged to Virginia. The Cavaliers connected on seven of the final eight shots before halftime. In that span, Cangemi scored four of her career-high five goals, as her outburst was strengthened by offensive contributions from midfielder Lauren Aumiller and tight defense.
"I thought William and Mary did a great job of countering," Virginia coach Julie Myers said. "Every time we scored, it seemed like they scored pretty quickly. We were psyched that our team was able to dig our heels in and start putting our own run together and not letting them back in the half."
One of Cangemi's five goals actually was intended to be a pass, but when it went through the net, the score was official.
"That's the kind of goal that the other teams just die for," Virginia coach Julie Myers said. "I think we had at least three goals that should have been saves. Then we had some good ones on top of that that put us in control of the game."
Virginia outshot William and Mary, 38-27, overall. Cavalier goalkeeper Liz McCarthy had eight saves, one more than the Tribe's Sydney Richards.
In the second half, William and Mary scored two quick goals to pull within three before Virginia went for another outburst, scoring nine of the following 10 goals to take a 19-8 advantage.
Although a comeback seemed unlikely with less than three minutes to play, William and Mary took advantage of its bench and managed three more goals, but it was too late to steal the game.
"It's a great feeling knowing that, even if you don't score every time, you're part of a great team," Cangemi said. "It was a long preseason, six weeks, and when we played on Sunday [against Georgetown] it was alright, but today it really gelled."
"We wanted to go fast," Myers added. "I bet 13 or 14 of our goals were on fast-break opportunities. That was something that we really focused on in the preseason, so it was good to see"
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