Besides sharing a top-five ranking, the Virginia and Princeton women's lacrosse teams have both faced four ranked teams in their first seven games. After defeating then-No. 7 North Carolina 16-5 last weekend in ACC play, the No. 2 Cavaliers will look to hand the No. 4 Tigers (5-0) their first loss of the season Saturday in Princeton.
Virginia (6-1, 2-1 ACC) will look to maintain the same kind of debilitating defense and oppressive offense that has helped maintain its high ranking despite a tough schedule.
One of the keys of the game for Virginia will be to maintain its intensity after beating a strong ACC opponent in the Tar Heels. With a week off between the matches, focus will be a key factor in making that happen.
"We'll just keep practicing hard and keep trying to do the things that we did well," junior midfielder Blair Weymouth said. "I'm sure we'll watch film to pick out the good stuff we've been doing and try to keep it up."
Senior goalkeeper Kendall McBrearty also stressed moving on from the emotional high from the blowout win against the Tar Heels.
"We just need to make sure we come out in practice and forget Carolina," McBrearty said. "We have to make sure we prepare just like we did for them. It's a huge game."
Virginia coach Julie Myers and her assistants have been hard at work this week ensuring the team will be prepared.
"That's one of our jobs as coaches, to make sure that we relax when we can, but that we really push them hard," Myers said. "The better we do as coaches in breaking down an offensive set of our opponents, the more prepared our defense feels and that really feeds the fire for our team and energy. We need to make sure, as coaches, we stay focused, and we keep pushing forward."
On the offensive end, Virginia will rely on its leading scorer, junior midfielder Ashley McCulloch, who has found the net 11 times and contributed 17 assists this season. Tied for second on the team in points with 18 apiece are sophomore midfielder Brittany Kalkstein, junior attacker Jenny Hauser and Weymouth. Despite playing in only one of the team's two games because of injury, Weymouth was named last week's ACC Player of the Week because of a four-goal, three-assist performance against the Tar Heels.
Weymouth said she will look to carry that momentum into tomorrow's matchup with Princeton.
"It's an ACC win," Weymouth said of the UNC victory, noting that Princeton is "going to be intimidated by us probably a little bit. They should be a little scared after seeing the score of this [North Carolina] game."
Leading Virginia on the defensive end will be McBrearty, who is only surrendering 7.43 goals a game and has tallied 54 saves on the season. The Cavaliers can also expect defensive and possession help from Kalkstein, who has 19 draw controls, and Hauser, who has caused eight turnovers. McBrearty leads Virginia with 17 ground balls and is followed by Kalkstein and sophomore midfielder Kaitlin Duff, who have 15 each.
Virginia will need to stop an efficient Tiger attack, which has scored on 60 of 118 shots this season. Princeton will be coming off a midweek victory at home against James Madison University 17-10 in which senior attacker Ashley Amo notched eight points on four goals and four assists.
Virginia and Princeton have a single common opponent thus far in the season, Penn State University. The Cavaliers won in Happy Valley by a score of 13-7, while the Tigers achieved the same result with a tally of 7-6.
Weymouth said the team is always excited to play a strong opponent and knows Princeton is exactly that.
"Princeton has always been a huge rival for us, going back to my first year when we lost to them in the first round of the playoffs," she said. "It'll be a gritty, intense, all-out, hustle type of game. It's going to be a good matchup and hopefully we come out on top"
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