Two days after securing a win on their own Senior Night, the Virginia women's lacrosse team aims to spoil Virginia Tech's festivities and come out of Blacksburg with its fourth ACC win.
The Hokies currently stand at 6-7 on the season despite a 0-4 ACC record that has left them in sole possession of last place in the conference standings. With their most recent loss, a 15-13 defeat at the hands of Longwood, Tech remains winless against Virginia schools.
Despite the records, the rivalry between the two schools is still intense, and the Cavaliers are not overlooking the importance of this game.
"Since it's Virginia Tech, obviously it's always a big game," senior Tyler Leachman said. "Now that they're in the ACC, it's even bigger."
Virginia needs a win against the Hokies to keep their slim hopes of a No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament alive. The Cavaliers currently stand in a three-way tie atop the ACC with North Carolina and Duke, but one game behind the Blue Devils in the overall standings. The Cavaliers need this win to keep pace in the dash for the conference regular season crown.
Coach Julie Myers wants the team to emphasize playing a sound, full 60 minutes. The past two games for Virginia have featured uncharacteristic stretches where the Cavaliers did not play up to their talent level. The team allowed inferior opponents to claw their way back into the game after Virginia jumped out to early leads and seemed poised to break the game wide open.
"We need to make sure that we not only play well for the 30 minutes, but obviously for the 60 minutes," Myers said. "That will be our team challenge, no matter what the score is at halftime -- to make sure we're taking advantage of that next 30 minutes."
Myers believes the team's recent performances may be a product of the longer rest period between games. After playing a March schedule packed with critical contests, Virginia has scaled back the number of games and the caliber of opponents, with only three games in the past two weeks.
"We aren't playing three games a week anymore," Myers said. "Some of our tougher opponents are under our belt already. Its only natural at this point in the semester, with academic things kicking in too, that our kids are taking it a bit easier than maybe they should be."
No matter the caliber of opponents, however, the squad wants to be playing their best lacrosse at the end of the season, when conference and national championships will be contested. The final regular season games, against Virginia Tech tonight and Georgetown next week, are vital to the team's progress and improvement.
"We're trying to do the best we can going into the ACC Tournament," Leachman said.
The coaching staff has been frustrated by the recent play and the team's inconsistency. Despite maintaining their winning streak, Myers wants the team to continue to make strides and improvements and not be satisfied with its current level of play.
"We need to not only win a game, but get better in that process," Myers said.
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