The wet conditions could not cool off a red-hot offense as the No. 1 Virginia men's lacrosse team (11-0) defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels (2-9), 21-13. As a result of the cancellation of the Duke lacrosse season, Virginia will not play its scheduled game against the Blue Devils April 15. The Cavaliers thus finish the conference regular season at 2-0, giving them the No. 1 seed in the upcoming ACC tournament.
Virginia's start Saturday mirrored that of their game against Maryland last weekend. The Cavaliers got to the goal early, putting the Tar Heels down right off the bat. Drew Thompson set the pace with a goal in the opening minute of the game. The Cavaliers scored the first five goals in the first seven minutes of the game. Carolina answered with an unassisted Ryan Flair goal with 3:22 remaining in the first quarter to get on the scoreboard.
Virginia would push the lead up to seven, when a fast-break goal by freshman Garrett Billings made it 9-2 with 9:34 to go in the second quarter.
"We've tried to focus not so much on an individual effort but a team effort," senior Matt Ward said. "Our passing was really good and it paid off."
However, just when it seemed the Cavaliers could put the game on cruise control, the Heels answered. Nick Tintle capped off a late first-half charge, cutting the gap to 11-6 at the break.
Early in the second half, Billings and Ward put in two goals in a 10-second span, expanding the lead to 13-7.
Once again the Tar Heels refused to go away, as Michael Burns scored with 2:24 left in the third quarter to cut the deficit to four again. The Heels, however, would get no closer. A strong fourth quarter gave the Cavaliers six more goals and their 11th win on the season.
"North Carolina was hard as heck," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. "It was one of those old-time lacrosse games. We obviously wanted to win but we also wanted to get a hard game out of this because we're going to sit for awhile."
Virginia was led by Billings who had a career-high five goals, giving him 22 on the season, along with two assists. Freshman Danny Glading picked up two assists to complement his three goals, also a career high. For Ward, his two goals give him 117 for his career, fourth all-time at Virginia.
Defensively, the Cavaliers were not as suffocating as in previous games. This was only the second game of the season in which the opposition scored in double digits. The Tar Heels also had 10 different players record goals in the game. The wet conditions played a part in this sloppy defense, but when Virginia had to make a stop, they were successful.
Virginia now enters a long stretch of practice until the Bellarmine game April 22. Starsia is not worried.
"I don't know the magic formula," Starsia said. "It's something we have to deal with. We'll work hard this week and get back to it for the stretch run."
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