Last night the No. 8 Virginia women's lacrosse team had its first chance for revenge against a Maryland team that knocked them out of the ACC Tournament last April. Unfortunately for the Cavaliers (3-2, 0-1 ACC), No. 3 Maryland (5-0, 3-0) was riding the momentum of two overtime victories over Duke and Syracuse and had little trouble on its way to an 11-8 victory.
Both teams struggled to get on the scoreboard in the opening minutes until Terrapin midfielder Kelly Coppedge -- Maryland's leading scorer on the season -- connected on a shot from the free position with just over five minutes gone by in the game. Minutes later, Coppedge scored her second of five goals, and attacker Brooke Richards followed her example to put Maryland up 3-0 with 18:51 to go in the first half. The forced, up-tempo pace of the game continued to hurt Virginia.
"I feel like we rushed it and tried for some pretty tough feeds that weren't necessarily there, so we turned our shooting opportunities into turnovers," Virginia coach Julie Myers said.
Two minutes after Richards' goal, the Cavaliers finally retaliated when junior attacker Caitlin Banks connected on a pass from sophomore attacker Cary Chasney. Senior midfielder Lauren Aumiller followed up just over a minute later with a goal of her own.
Maryland was able to regain control after a rare, long offensive possession by Virginia. The combination of a crucial save by junior goalie Andrea Pfeiffer from a shot off the free position and subsequent miss off the goal post appeared to open up a window for the Cavaliers to even up the score. Maryland goalie Alexis Venechanos, however, prevented a score from sophomore attackman Amy Appelt and it was the Terps who found themselves with a 4-2 advantage when Maryland's Jessica Dorney scored with just over a minute to play in the half. Appelt reduced the deficit to one just 18 seconds later, but Dorney matched her effort by scoring off the free position with 18 seconds to go before halftime.
Maryland's surge did not slow down in the second half, as it scored two goals in the first four minutes. Just seconds after the second goal, Banks got the Cavaliers back on the board, but the quick pace of that run did not hold, as it was the lone goal for Virginia in the first 13 minutes of the half. Maryland, on the other hand, had four scores -- two by Coppedge.
Aumiller kept Virginia in the game by connecting on two shots in a span of just over four minutes, but Maryland took advantage of Cavalier turnovers and scored two goals within forty seconds of each other to extend the lead to 11-6 with just under nine minutes to go. Maryland would not score again, and despite two late goals by Chasney, Virginia failed to generate a consistent offensive effort for the remainder of the game.
"I'm disappointed that we're still making some of the mistakes that we're making," Myers said. "I believe in our players and think that they're going to be able to put the work and time in to correct these mistakes, and as coaches we'll do the same."
Aumiller also recognizes that Virginia needs to improve to reach their full potential.
"I think this is a wakeup call for us," Aumiller said. "We know we can only get better from here."
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