UVA Women's Lacrosse Falls to No. 8 North Carolina in Overtime Heartbreaker
Coming into the game, the Tar Heels had scored at least 18 goals in each of their first three games of the season, evidence of one of the most powerful offenses in all of women's lacrosse. On Friday night in Charlottesville, that same dangerous UNC attack was held to just nine goals in regulation thanks to an inspired effort by the Virginia defense.
That defensive performance nearly produced a marquee victory and an early statement for the direction of the UVA women's lacrosse program under new head coach Sonia LaMonica.
Unfortunately for LaMonica's Cavaliers, they fell one play short, and gave up a tenth goal in overtime as No. 15 Virginia (3-1, 0-1 ACC) suffered a heartbreaking 10-9 defeat to No. 8 North Carolina (3-1, 1-0 ACC) on a rainy Friday night at Klockner Stadium.
The early stages of the game bore little sign of the drama that would ensue later in the contest, as North Carolina built a 4-1 lead 20 minutes into the game. It was a gradual process for UNC to build that lead, as UVA's defense was effective in disrupting the Tar Heels, who managed only two goals in the first quarter.
Two goals from Caitlyn Wurzburger made it 4-1, but Morgan Schwab fired back for the Cavaliers. That sparked a 4-2 run for UVA to end the first half, capped by a goal from Mackenzie Hoeg with just four seconds remaining, and Virginia went into halftime trailing by only one goal at 6-5.
A stretch of nine scoreless minutes ensued to begin the third quarter and UNC temporarily pushed its lead back to two goals, but Schwab assisted on a Madison Alaimo goal and then scored for herself to tie the game at 7-7 entering the fourth quarter.
Olivia Dirks scored early in the fourth quarter for North Carolina and then, after another stretch of nearly seven minutes in which neither team found the back of the net, Dirks scored again to make it 9-7 in favor of the Tar Heels with six minutes left to play.
UNC would not score again in regulation, while the Cavaliers proved they had just enough left in the tank to tie things up. Jenna Dinardo scored unassisted with five and a half minutes to play and then Morgan Schwab tallied her third goal of the game, dodging from behind the cage and shooting around her defender while falling to the ground and finding the back of the net with just 26 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime.
Virginia couldn't quite punctuate the comeback with the overtime winner, though, as Alyssa Long drew three defenders on a dodge and then found a cutting Eva Ingrilli, who despite having UVA defender Olivia Bruno in her face, fired off a shot that got past Mel Josephson to win the game for the Tar Heels.
“This team has tremendous fight and I don’t think that’s going to go away," UVA head coach Sonia LaMonica said of her team's performance. "The team played really tough, they did. I think we had a stout defensive effort holding a team like UNC to 10 goals. It was a really good day at the office. I think offensively, we need to be a little more dynamic. We needed to break down our dodges a little bit better. All good stuff to continue to work on."
Morgan Schwab paced the Cavaliers with three goals and two assists and Mackenzie Hoeg and Kate Galica had two goals apiece. Maggie Bostain had four caused turnovers, four draw controls, and three ground balls to lead the UVA midfield.
Virginia will be back in action on Sunday when the Cavaliers travel to the USA Lacrosse Headquarters in Sparks, Maryland to take on Cornell at 12pm at Tierney Field.
Subscribe to the Cavaliers Now Newsletter to receive UVA sports news in your inbox first thing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
See more Virginia sports news and content: Virginia Cavaliers on Sports Illustrated
To stay up to date on all Virginia Cavaliers sports news, follow CavaliersNow on social media:
Facebook: @CavaliersNow
Twitter: @CavaliersNowFN