The No. 5 Cavaliers started a bit tentatively last night, but had two separate spurts of three goals in under a minute en route to a convincing 17-6 victory over Old Dominion.
Attacker Tyler Leachman led the charge with five goals, tying a season-high. Attacker Amy Appelt added three goals and an assist, continuing her streak of consecutive games with a hat trick, now at 13. Attacker Ashleigh Haas also contributed three goals and an assist for Virginia (10-3, 2-1 ACC), her second hat trick of the season.
Leachman opened the scoring nearly nine minutes into the game on a weak shot in front of the net. Midfielder Katie Veneziale of the Monarchs (3-6) responded three minutes later on a pass from Janine Rodriguez to tie the score at one. The Monarchs' aggressive defensive plan to faceguard Appelt and stellar goaltending by Michelle Gannon kept the score level midway through the first half.
Virginia's offensive onslaught began slightly over 15 minutes into the game, when in the course of a minute, Haas scored twice and Leachman added her second of the game. After a timeout called by Monarchs coach Sue Stahl, attacker Rodriguez responded to cut the deficit to two, but the Cavaliers scored eight unanswered goals to end the half, including another stretch of three in under a minute.
With just under 10 minutes to go, a tally by Appelt was sandwiched by goals from Leachman to open up a 7-2 lead. Leachman's fifth of the game and 50th on the season was followed up by four more Cavalier goals, two from Kate Breslin and one each from Megan Havrilla and Appelt, resulting in a 12-2 halftime lead.
"I think we started moving better and our shots were better," Myers said of Virginia's first half scoring surge. "We took the first four or five shots down low, by her feet, and she clearly was stopping those pretty consistently, so we changed where we were shooting the ball. We also changed our shot location -- we just moved the ball."
Virginia controlled possession for much of the second half and spread out the Old Dominion defense to wind down the clock. On the half, the Cavaliers outscored the Monarchs 5-4, with goals from Haas, Appelt, Caitlin Banks, Jess Wasilewski, and Kaitlin Swagart, the first of her career.
For the game, Virginia outshot Old Dominion 26-18 and led in saves 10-7. The ground ball count was even at 18, while the Cavaliers dominated on draw controls 16-8.
With another hat trick from Appelt, the Cavaliers once again received their most consistent contribution.
"We all count on it," Myers said. "They threw a different defense at her tonight. They were face-guarding her for the majority of the game. So it was different -- I think we need to help our attackers, help her to get free a little bit more so she gets more touches on the ball. But, I mean, clearly she's a pretty powerful and potent attacker. So if we get the ball to her five times, she should be able to score those three."
The season is winding down for the Cavaliers, who have only three remaining before the ACC tournament, including a tilt with No. 7 Loyola.
"We are getting into our final games here, just the last couple of weeks," Leachman said. "We need to keep just getting better as a team. I think we have great chemistry on the field as a team -- and it is showing."
The Cavaliers' next chance to improve will be Tuesday against George Mason.
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