On a night when the cold and drizzle showed no mercy, the play of the No. 4 Virginia women's lacrosse team was equally ruthless.
The Cavaliers (10-3) made easy work of Virginia Tech (2-10) at Klöckner Stadium last night, scoring 12 first half goals on the way to a 19-3 victory. The 16-goal victory margin was Virginia's largest this season.
Sophomore attacker Cary Chesney led the Cavaliers with five goals and two assists. Senior midfielder Lauren Aumiller added four goals and an assist, while junior attacker Caitlin Banks scored three goals and dished out a pair of assists for Virginia. The three goals scored by the Hokies were the fewest the Cavalier defense has allowed all season.
"We came out and hustled," Aumiller said. "Our attack was working well and our defense was definitely going hard. We were looking to move forward from our game on Sunday and I think everyone was just ready to play."
The Cavaliers fell to Duke on Sunday in their final ACC matchup. The loss left Virginia with a 1-2 conference record and a third place ranking in the ACC. However, the Cavaliers have been much more successful against in-state rivals. With last night's win, the Cavaliers stand 6-0 against opponents from within the Old Dominion, outscoring them 90-36 in the six games.
Virginia wasted no time getting on the board last night. Just 12 seconds into the game, junior midfielder Morgan Thalenburg knocked the ball out of Virginia Tech goalie Carrie Hill's stick and fed a pass to Banks, who easily dumped it into the open net.
The Cavaliers scored two more tallies quickly afterward, equaling the Hokies' entire offensive output of the night in less than three minutes of play.
Virginia maintained its torrid scoring pace throughout the early part of the first half.
Running across the middle, Banks snagged a high pass from freshman midfielder Nikki Lieb and dumped the ball into the top right side of the net for the Cavaliers' seventh goal in just over 10 minutes. At that point, Virginia was on pace to net 42 goals by the end of the night.
The Hokies were able to slow Virginia down as the half progressed and scored two of the game's next three goals to pull to within 8-3 with 13 minutes left in the stanza. The Cavaliers responded by scoring four unanswered goals before halftime to grab a nine-goal advantage.
Virginia kept the Hokies scoreless throughout the second half and netted seven more goals, to lock up the squad's seventh victory in eight games with relatively little effort.
"It's good for every team to play a team they know they can handle," sophomore attacker Amy Appelt said. "We knew we were going to handle this team so it was about how we handle them. We wanted our attack to click better and for the most part, we just clicked tonight."
The Virginia offense controlled the ball for most of the game and easily outperformed its Hokie counterparts. The Cavaliers fired off 33 shots to Virginia Tech's paltry five. The Cavaliers also caused a season-high 22 turnovers.
Although the Cavaliers welcomed the easy win, last night's cakewalk may not have been exactly what the team wanted after facing such tough competition over the weekend.
"I think we would have liked more of a match because you want to improve" after that loss to Duke, Aumiller said. "It would have been nice for a little bit of a closer game."
Virginia faces George Mason next week in a final tune-up before the ACC tournament April 18-20 at Klöckner Stadium.
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