No. 11 UVA Women's Lax Downs Elon 20-11 in Season Opener

Rachel Clark shined in her UVA debut with six goals to lead the Cavaliers

Matt Newton | Feb 12, 2022

Photo courtesy of Virginia Athletics Communications

The No. 11 UVA women's lacrosse team started the 2022 campaign strong with a 20-11 road victory at Elon on Friday.

Freshman Rachel Clark was spectacular in her collegiate debut, tallying six goals to lead all scorers. Clark scored the first goal of the season followed by senior Annie Dyson to give UVA a 2-0 lead. Elon answered back and scored three-straight to go in front 3-2, but the Cavaliers responded with a 3-0 run of their own behind a pair of goals by senior Ashlyn McGovern to make it 5-3. McGovern was Virginia's second-leading scorer with a hat trick and also had an assist.

Elon scored a goal to end the first quarter and UVA led 5-4.

After a closely-contested opening quarter, the Cavaliers blew the game wide open with a five-goal burst to start the second quarter. Rachel Clark scored two goals during the run and had five goals in the first half as UVA outscored Elon 7-2 in the period and had a 12-6 lead at halftime.

Behind a 21-12 advantage in draw controls, Virginia continued to dominate time of possession in the second half and outshot Elon 38-27. UVA outscored Elon 4-2 in the third and 4-3 in the fourth and cruised to the 20-11 win.

Morgan Schwab, Annie Dyson, and Mackenzie Hoeg each had two goals and ten Cavaliers registered a goal in the match.

Virginia returns home on Sunday to host California at 12pm at Klockner Stadium.

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Published Feb 12, 2022

MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.