Virginia women’s lacrosse team lost to No. 1 North Carolina 17-7 at Klöckner Stadium in Charlottesville Thursday night. This was the Cavaliers’ (7-8, 2-5 ACC) second straight ACC loss after their 13-8 defeat against Duke.
The undefeated Tar Heels (14-0, 7-0 ACC) used a big first-quarter run to take control of the game, never looking back. Graduate student midfielder Ally Mastroianni led the way for the Tar Heels scoring four goals to bring her season total up to 31. Only two players got on the scoresheet for the Cavaliers — freshman midfielder Rachel Clark had four goals on her day and senior attacker Ashlyn McGovern had three.
Virginia was first on the scoreboard with Clark scoring an unassisted goal just over two minutes into the contest. The two sides exchanged goals in the next few minutes with Clark scoring her second of the day, and the Cavaliers led 2-1.
The rest of the quarter was all Tar Heels. North Carolina went on a six-goal run while spreading the ball around — all six goals were scored by different players. The Cavaliers — on behalf of McGovern — got one back at the end of the quarter to bring the Tar Heel lead down to four at the end of the first quarter.
During the second quarter, the Tar Heels’ success continued with two early goals from Mastroianni and graduate student attacker Jamie Ortega to grow the lead to six. Ortega’s 49 goals on the year put her tied for sixth place in goals scored in the ACC — she is tied with Virginia’s Clark.
Clark scored the next two goals for the Cavaliers. A goal from North Carolina graduate student attacker Andie Aldavi with 1:29 left was the final goal of the first half. The Tar Heels led 10-5 going into the halftime break.
McGovern looked to get the Cavaliers back into the game, getting a goal back with 13:08 left in the third quarter. North Carolina was quick to respond with two goals of its own, not allowing Virginia to get any momentum. McGovern completed her hat trick on a free position shot, but after her goal it was all North Carolina.
The Tar Heels held Virginia scoreless in the fourth quarter and scored the last five goals of the contest to run away with a 17-7 victory.
“North Carolina is a great team and they were able to capitalize on a lot of our mistakes,” Coach Julie Myers said. “I felt like we competed the entire game. Looking at all of the stat lines, you would think this was a one-or-two goal game. The difference was they put their shots on goal, and we didn’t.”
Virginia will travel to Blacksburg Thursday at 7 p.m. to play Virginia Tech in the Commonwealth Clash. The Hokies are coming off four straight ACC losses, but look to rebound against the Cavaliers.
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