Virginia and Old Dominion have met every year since 1980, largely to the same result: a Virginia victory. Wednesday night proved no different, as the Cavaliers (5-6, 0-3 ACC) continued their series dominance with a 19-8 win against the Monarchs (3-7). Virginia now has 37 of the 38 total meetings.
“I think it was nice to see everyone coming in and out of the game working together,” sophomore midfielder Mary Alati said. “We practiced all week executing out plays, and I think we tried to clean it up and carrying out what we did in practice in the game today.”
It was Old Dominion who scored first, with two quick goals on two shots less than three minutes into the game. From there on, though, Virginia imposed its dominance — finishing the next 27 minutes of the half on a 14-3 run.
“Old Dominion started off pretty strong,” coach Julie Meyers said. “Going down 2-0 was not exactly on anyone’s mind, but I thought our girls did a nice job of winning draw controls, batting for loose balls all over the field and then really getting into our sets, showing some organization.”
Junior attacker Courtney Swan — who was named a first team midseason All-American by Inside Lacrosse — answered just 21 seconds later to cut the deficit to 2-1. Virginia sat at a 4-2 lead with 21:56 left in the half.
After an Old Dominion goal with 20:14 left to play, senior attacker Liza Blue scored her second and third of the day in a span of just more than a minute to notch her fourth consecutive hat-trick just more than 12 minutes into the game. Alati and Swan followed suit, finding the back of the net as Virginia took an 8-3 lead.
Following an Old Dominion score with just more than 12 minutes in the half, Swan scored her third of the day — her seventh hat-trick of the season. Senior attacker Ashlee Warner and Blue both scored to give Virginia an 11-4 advantage.
Freshman midfielder Posey Valis and midfielder Sarah Crowley, who scored her first career goal, then brought the Cavaliers to a 13-4 lead, which allowed Meyers to go deep into her rotation. Six different freshmen saw the field, while 12 players saw time off of the bench.
“Everybody works incredibly hard, and not everyone gets their moment in the sun on game day,” Meyers said. “Whenever you’re in a position that you can put some players in that work really hard, that’s exactly what coaches want. Even the starters were excited that their teammates were able to have a chance to play on game day. Game days are special, and for everyone to feel that is pretty nice.”
The Cavaliers held a comfortable 14-5 lead at the half, but it was again Old Dominion who scored first out of the break. However, Virginia rattled off four straight goals in four minutes to quell any hope of a Monarch comeback. The Cavaliers cleared much of their bench but still outscored Old Dominion 5-2 in a second half which had a running clock for almost its entirety as the Virginia lead surmounted 10 goals.
A large reason for Virginia’s success was its dominance on the draw control. The Cavaliers won 20 of the 29 attempts, including eight of the first nine. Even when they did not win the draw, players’ hustle forced turnovers, allowing the Cavaliers to truly control the game.
“People went hard on the draw,” Alati said. “Even when the other team would come up with it, we were on their backs, causing turnovers all over the field. That makes a huge difference.”
The relatively easy victory was more than just another mark in the win column for Virginia, allowing the Cavaliers to run through what they had been working on in practice.
“It’s nice to play a game where you can run through your sets, where you’re not looking for the shots, so you can just really practice against a true opponent who doesn’t know what you’re trying to do,” Meyers said. “I feel like we got a really important win and a great practice in as well.”
The Cavaliers will take advantage of an off weekend to rest their players in the midst of a critical midseason stretch. Even without a game on Saturday or Sunday, Virginia will still play two games in six days. Meyers and her coaching staff will use the days off to put together game plans for several of their upcoming contests.
“We really need to look at it as a two game week,” Meyers said. “Even though we don’t play for a while, we still have two games. American is a pretty important prep, and then Notre Dame is having a great year so that’s going to take a lot of time and energy as well.”
Virginia next faces American Tuesday, April 1 in Klöckner Stadium at 7 p.m.
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