After three straight victories over top-10 opponents, the No. 4 Virginia women lacrosse squad (6-2, ACC 1-1) gets a short respite from its rough schedule when it travels to unranked University of Maryland-Baltimore County to face the Lady Retrievers at 4 p.m. today.
The Cavaliers recently escaped from Chapel Hill with a narrow 7-6 win, while UMBC (1-4, NEC 1-0), which competes in the Northeast Conference, obtained its first victory by defeating Mount St. Mary's 16-7 its last time out.
Virginia also achieved its first conference win with a victory over the Tarheels.
"I feel like we did a lot of good things [against North Carolina] but we have a lot to work on," junior attackman Caitlin Banks said.
That might be so considering the Cavaliers scored a season-low seven goals and lost nine of 15 draws against North Carolina. Regardless, the team is averaging a solid 13.6 goals a game and holds a lofty top-five ranking.
A large contingent of the Cavalier program is looking forward to traveling to the Baltimore area, not only to improve on their weaknesses against a lesser squad, but also to return to their native state. Many of the Virginia players call Maryland home.
"It's actually a homecoming trip for most of our kids, 'cause we have 11 or 12 kids from the Baltimore area," head coach Julie Myers said.
Despite the Retrievers unimpressive record and reputation, Myers warns of a potential letdown.
"UMBC isn't ranked, but they're very aggressive and they lost a lot of games by one or two goals," said Myers, partially referring to Maryland's 15-14 overtime loss to American on March 12. "I think we match well with them and we should have a good day on the field."
Captain Tiffany Schummer concurred, "Whether an opponent is ranked or unranked doesn't have a bearing on the mentality you have going into the game, we're just out there to get better every day."
Their only common opponent so far has been Old Dominion, a team Virginia handily defeated 17-5 on March 5 and a team UMBC suffered a 13-10 setback to three days later. The Virginia defense, anchored by Maryland-native Schummer, will look to neutralize Retrievers Stephanie Allen and Lauren Hess, who each had four goals and one assist in their lone victory. Kelly Fiorani (10 goals, one assist on the season), who recently netted Rookie of the Week honors as a result of her double hat-trick performance against American and Mount St. Mary's, also will be a concern.
Barring an extraordinary outing from UMBC, an adequate performance from Virginia, including the squad's Maryland dwellers, should be sufficient continuines their three-game winning steak.
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