The Virginia women's lacrosse team needed to bounce back from Friday's 9-6 loss to Penn State. The Cavaliers (3-1, 1-0 ACC) were able to do just that with an 11-5 win over Richmond (0-4) Sunday.
"It was nice to play again so quickly after Friday night," Virginia coach Julie Myers said. "It was good to come out on a nice day and take care of a good Richmond team."
The Cavaliers were led by junior Tyler Leachman, who scored a career-high seven goals, while the Spiders were led by junior Caroline McGuire, who had four of Richmond's five goals. Virginia controlled the entire game and never trailed after Leachman started off by scoring her first goal less than 2:30 into the game. McGuire responded with her first tally two minutes later, but the Cavaliers went on to score the next four goals to build a comfortable lead. Leachman scored three of those four goals with senior Cary Chasney notching the other one.
Leachman's final goal of the opening half came in the final minute of play. Senior Amy Appelt, who had three assists on the day, forced a turnover and found Leachman, who scored with 51 seconds remaining before halftime. On the ensuing face-off, however, McGuire controlled the ball and ran all the way downfield to score unassisted with 34.2 seconds to spare.
"Towards the end of the week, playing four games in eight days, I don't think our legs were quite there for us to be effective in that transition defense," Myers said. "We need to work towards being able to do it, no matter how many games in a row we have."
Leachman and Appelt got back to work in the second half, as Appelt assisted Leachman on the first two goals following the break. For the first goal of the half, Appelt passed out of a double team to a wide open Leachman. On the second goal, Appelt hit Leachman with a crisp pass as Leachman cut through the middle of the Richmond defense.
"Pretty much all of my goals were assisted," Leachman said. "I think our offense is working really well together. I think we did a really good job of moving the ball around. I just happened to be the open person."
Following Leachman's second goal of the half, the Spiders regrouped and put together a three goal run to close within two, 7-5. McGuire and junior Sara Allen scored unassisted goals within two minutes of each other, and then the Spiders went on to control the ball for much of the next 10 minutes of the game.
"Since we can score a lot really quickly, I think that's a good game strategy for them to come in with," Myers said. "Penn State did a good job of holding the ball on Friday. We need to come up with a couple of different defenses that will rattle that."
McGuire later added her fourth and final goal with about 10 minutes remaining in the game. That goal also proved to be Richmond's final goal of the game.
The Cavaliers responded quickly as junior Kim Connors won the ensuing draw and ran down the field to score 13 seconds after McGuire. Virginia scored the next three goals of the game to secure the win. Leachman scored her final goal of the day with five minutes remaining in the game to put her team up 9-5. Freshman Megan O'Malley scored her first collegiate goal at the 57:51 mark, and Nikki Lieb scored the final goal of the game with 1:50 remaining.
Junior goalie Ginger Miles continued her strong play as she recorded eight saves in the match, and Freshman goalie Kendall McBrearty played the final two minutes of the game, recorded her first career save while on the field.
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