Last night, the Virginia women's lacrosse team endured a brutal 15-minute stretch in which it was outscored 4-0 and looked to be in serious trouble. Fortunately for the Cavaliers, they spent the other 45 minutes in control on their way to a surprisingly close 15-8 victory over Old Dominion.
"They got on a run," sophomore Claire Bordley said. "Normally, every time an opponent scores this year, our offense gets another goal. The four goals in a row were definitely not characteristic of our team."
Virginia scored four quick goals to stake out a 4-0 lead at the 18:22 mark of the first half and seemed poised to break open the game. ODU had other ideas, though, and stormed back with four goals of their own in the next 15 minutes to tie the game at four.
The Monarchs challenged the Virginia defense and earned many free position shots on Virginia penalties. ODU converted three of those free position shots into goals during their comeback.
"Old Dominion did a nice job of coming hard to goal," Virginia coach Julie Myers said. "They were really making us play some pretty tough one on one defense. They made us work hard tonight."
Senior Tyler Leachman broke the tie on the next Cavalier possession, outrunning the Old Dominion defense on a restart for a point-blank goal. Her goal started another Cavalier scoring streak as seniors Nikki Lieb and Kim Connors helped Leachman push the lead to five goals. Leachman paced the team with three goals on the night and moved into sole possession of fourth place on Virginia's all-time scoring list.
The second half had considerably less drama than the first. Old Dominion continued to fight, tallying four more goals against a Virginia defense that had been impressive of late, but the Monarchs never came within five goals of the Cavaliers.
The stellar play of goalkeeper Michelle Gannon helped stymie a Virginia offense that managed 37 shots, of which only 15 found the back of the net.
"The goalie made some nice saves," Myers said. "She came out and was a lot more active than we expected. We were generating great looks -- if our shooters were on, we could have scored 20."
Although happy to win the game, Myers felt the team did not play up to their potential.
"I think everybody did just enough," Myers said. "Nobody played great and nobody was horrible. I'm not sure we got better tonight as a team but we were able to win the game, so it's a positive that we won. But we need to make sure that we're sharper."
Both the players and coaching staff were concerned that Saturday's emotional 11-10 win at No. 2 Duke would affect this game, and admitted that it may have influenced the team's performance against ODU.
"After Duke [the coaches] were worried we were going to take steps backward," Bordley said. "We still need to finish out strong. I think the coaches were disappointed in our shooting and a couple mental breakdowns. I don't think it's too awful, but coming off the Duke win I think we were a little bit off."
The Cavaliers now have a week off to rest before another home game against George Mason next Wednesday.