The Virginia women's lacrosse team scored goals on its first four shots of the game and did not give up a goal until the 11:46 mark of the first half en route to a 16-9 victory over ACC foe North Carolina. With the win, the Cavaliers remain in a tie with Duke atop the conference standings.
The No. 4 Cavaliers (5-2, 2-0 ACC) aimed to control the tempo of the game from start to finish, an aspect they felt they did not execute last weekend in their loss at Princeton. The Cavaliers built a 3-0 lead in the first three minutes of the game against North Carolina (4-3, 0-2), and extended that lead to 7-0 midway through the first half.
Three minutes later, the Tar Heels' Jess Allen managed to slip a shot past the Virginia defense and senior goalkeeper Andrea Pfeiffer for an unassisted goal and North Carolina's first score. But the goal would be only one of three allowed by Virginia in the half as they took a comfortable 9-3 halftime lead.
The Tar Heels came out aggressively at the start of the second half, scoring two goals in the first minute, cutting the lead to four. But the Cavaliers went on a 5-0 run over the next 14 minutes to take definitive control of the game.
Junior attacker Amy Appelt led the Cavaliers with four goals -- three in the second half -- and two assists despite feeling faint throughout the entire game. With her four goals, Appelt set a school record, becoming the first women's lacrosse player at Virginia to record a hat trick in seven consecutive games.
In addition their scoring leader being at less than full strength yesterday, the Cavaliers were without All-American attacker Cary Chasney, who is out for the season with a torn ACL suffered against Syracuse Feb. 28. Chasney became the second Cavalier to go down with that injury, as midfielder Meredith Lazarus has not played since tearing her ACL in the season opener at Vanderbilt.
Despite being short-handed, the rest of the Cavalier offense successfully adjusted to maintain control of the game. Each of the first six goals was scored by a different player.
"It's harder to scout a team when you have six or seven people scoring," Appelt said. "Not only scoring, but scoring more goals. You don't know who to guard and you don't know how to defend it. So it's always a positive for us."
Sophomore attacker Tyler Leachman was one of several players who provided the sustenance that allowed Virginia's offense to thrive. She scored two goals and added two assists in the first half.
"Tyler is just one of those grubby attackers," Virginia coach Julie Myers said. "She's going to get the ground balls and the put back goals and she's going to backdoor and she's a good cutter, so I think the more she touches the ball, the better we're going to be."
During practice this past week, the Cavaliers focused on playing a different style of offense that proved to be effective against UNC. They focused less on the one-on-one and more on handing out assists and looking to the middle for cutters, leading to a more balanced offensive attack to go along with their already stellar defensive effort.
"It was balanced," Myers said. "Everyone had one goal, but we also had more assists in this game than in the past. People were a little more involved offensively and I thought our defense played really tough. They're forcing some bad shots out of some pretty good shooters and Andrea's coming up with some big saves."
The Cavaliers will continue to test their new offense and look for more offensive threats this week as they host UM-Baltimore County and William & Mary on Tuesday and Thursday respectively.
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