One Saturday, just weeks ago, the then-No. 11 Virginia women’s lacrosse team emerged from a Berkeley, Calif., locker room for the second half of a West Coast matinee. The scoreboard showed 9-6 in favor of the Cavaliers, not the rout one might expect a top-15 powerhouse to impose upon an unranked opponent.
But the third quarter told a different story, featuring a red-hot Cavalier team set ablaze by this sophomore spark — Virginia draw specialist and sophomore midfielder Kate Galica.
The whistle blew, the period commenced and the game proceeded as follows. Galica draw control. Virginia goal just 35 seconds later. Galica draw control. 37 seconds of offense, culminating in another Cavalier score. Galica draw control.
The pattern only continued as the sophomore commandeered the draw, one of the game’s most important aspects.
“It’s monumental,” Coach Sonia LaMonica said. “It allows you to really have momentum — to be able to go on scoring runs, you know — to kind of ‘make it, take it.’”
And “make it, take it” is exactly what the period became. Virginia scored nine unanswered goals in that third quarter, as the Cavaliers transformed a once-vulnerable lead into a bulletproof cushion. In doing so, Galica won all eight draws she took, to the point where there was no doubt when she stepped up which team would end up in possession.
“That’s a huge thing for me personally,” Galica said. “[Knowing] that your team knows you’re going to win it.”
The midfielder hasn’t given her teammates much reason to doubt. Last year, Galica set a single-season program record for draw controls by a freshman. Then she found herself on the Tewaaraton Award Preseason Watchlist before this season.
This sort of dominance is years in the making. Galica was always a circle player with her club teams and filled the role in high school as well, although she considers the style of play in college to be vastly different.
With all that experience, when the spot opened up last year, it struck the hungry newcomer as the perfect opportunity to make an impact. She earned the primary draw specialist position before the end of her freshman campaign.
Beneath any player’s prowess in draws, however, lies a veiled complexity. First and foremost, the play demands intense physical production. Wrist strength and wrist quickness are key. Speed, too, is crucial.
“[Galica is] one of the fastest players you’ll watch playing the game,” LaMonica said. “And speed kills, quite frankly. Speed absolutely kills.”
But the draw is far from an individual affair, demanding communication between the primary taker and the two other circle players.
“I can usually tell where the ball is placed in the stick,” Galica said. “So I’m communicating to the two girls on the circle where I think they should go to get the ball best for them.”
Finally, being a draw specialist is mental. LaMonica likens it to the goalie position — pressure-packed and unforgiving. But Galica attacks the mental aspect with intention, allowing her to constantly reevaluate the previous opportunity. If she won, what went right? If she didn’t, what needs to change?
Things do tend to go right for Galica. Her 2024 line of 97 draw controls and 21 goals earned her ACC Freshman of the Year honors, making her the most recent name on a long list of Cavaliers to take home the award. LaMonica, herself the ACC Coach of the Year recipient, was not surprised to see her freshman flourish.
“We knew very quickly, working with [Galica] last year, that she was a special player,” LaMonica said. “And seeing that come to fruition is obviously what you want as a coach.”
The recognition did not stop there, either. Galica was one of two Virginia players this year named preseason All-ACC among other honors. Galica entered her sophomore campaign already established on the national stage, and that came with lofty external expectations.
“That second year in college — sophomore year, just in general — that can be a hard year, especially when you come off having a strong freshman year,” LaMonica said. “It's not uncommon for players to sort of pressurize themselves because they're still young.”
The “sophomore slump” is a phenomenon well-known to fans of just about every sport. It is not always easy to block out the noise, to keep playing your game and continue building on the momentum of a strong freshman campaign.
But Galica has not missed a beat.
Now at 99 draw controls through just 10 games, she is on pace to clear the single-season record of 149 in the Cavaliers’ six remaining contests. Should she fill the same role next season, she will not have long before she runs down the program career record of 332.
Virginia will need her stellar performance to continue. Especially with the loss of injured senior attacker and captain Kate Miller, the No. 11 Cavaliers are all-in on the “next player up” mentality.
“Everybody just needs to get an extra ground ball here, create an extra shot there, an extra draw control there,” LaMonica said. “It's a collective effort.”
The final whistle sounded in Berkeley — 20-9 in favor of the Cavaliers. In addition to two goals of her own, Galica finished the game with 15 draw controls, a mark that tied the single-game program record.
So how does Galica continue to approach games within reach of program records, battling for national and conference awards?
“Focusing on the small things,” Galica said. “You can’t really go into games being like, ‘I want to get a single-season record, single-game record...’ You have to go into it just trying to play your best and [do] what you can for the team.”
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