Despite suffering a loss to the No. 2-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels last weekend, Virginia looks to rebound with a victory over No. 27 William & Mary tonight at Klöckner field at 7 p.m.
"[North Carolina's] a really talented team and we just didn't go to Chapel Hill ready to play," senior defender and co-captain Jessy Morgan said of the team's performance last Saturday. "We let their turnovers get to us and they were able to capitalize on them. We just couldn't get into our groove that we've been having the last couple of games. None of the balls were falling our way. We had a really tough time."
It was not exactly clear why the Cavaliers (6-1, 2-1 ACC) did not perform at their previous level of play.
"I think both teams started pretty sloppy," Virginia coach Julie Meyers said. "Lots of turnovers, lots of missed opportunities, we weren't capitalizing, we were very sloppy in our transition. They were throwing balls away, missing catches I've never seen us miss. We were not sharp, [but] I don't think we're broken just because we lost one game. It's just going to be getting back to doing the little things."
There is certainly no reason to panic. Virginia leads the all-time series against William & Mary with a record of 22-17-1, and the last time the Cavaliers lost to the Tribe was in 1990.
The Tribe (2-4) recently returned from a trip to California during which they faced No. 28 Cal-Berkley and St. Mary's of California, losing to the Bears and then defeating St. Mary's, a performance that snapped a three-game losing streak.
What the Cavaliers will have to do is contain the Tribe's leading scorers, junior midfielder Jaime Sellers and sophomore attacker Dolly Williams, who have each scored 12 and 11 goals respectively so far this season.
Virginia, though, has accumulated greater offensive production from its midfielders and attackers, having recorded 91 goals so far (and giving up only 49) compared to the Tribe's 71 scores and relinquishing 65.
Before losing to North Carolina, three of the last four opponents the Cavaliers faced were ranked among the top 25. While some attribute last weekend's loss to being "just a physically and mentally exhausting challenge to play so well against those teams," as Myers said, it is important to realize that for the rest of the season, Virginia will not face a team ranked lower than No. 35 (which is Old Dominion). Four of the remaining eight games, not including the matchup against William & Mary, are against opponents in the top 20.
The Cavaliers must re-evaluate their strategy and come together so that by the time the ACC tournament and NCAA tournament come around, the squad will be playing its best lacrosse.
"It is good [sometimes] to lose and learn something from it," Morgan said. "We learned we really need to come out and not take anyone lightly. We've got to refocus and concentrate on ... the fundamentals that we were getting away from, like transition, cuts in the midfield and getting after ground balls, which basically win games."
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