Rachel Clark, Virginia Cavaliers women's lacrosse — Courtesy of Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics

Highlight Hoos 2021-2022: Rachel Clark | UVA Women's Lacrosse

Recapping Rachel Clark's outstanding freshman campaign for the Virginia women's lacrosse team

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
Jul 21, 2022 10:52 AM EDT

With the 2021-2022 Virginia athletics season officially completed, we enter the college sports offseason optimistic for things to come for the Cavaliers next season. But with the fall seasons still a couple of months away, we have time to take a look back at some of the incredible athletic accomplishments achieved by UVA student athletes during the 2021-2022 sports year in a series called Highlight Hoos.

So far, we've covered Diana Ordóñez (Virginia women's soccer), Mia Barnett (Virginia cross country and track & field), Leo Afonso (Virginia men's soccer), Brooklyn Borum (Virginia volleyball), Amber Ezechiels (Virginia field hockey), Alex Walsh and Kate Douglass (Virginia swimming), Dontayvion Wicks (Virginia football), Jay Aiello (Virginia wrestling), and Jayden Gardner (Virginia men's basketball).

Today, we take a look at the outstanding freshman campaign of Rachel Clark, who took little time in announcing her arrival to the UVA women's lacrosse program.

In her collegiate debut, Clark tallied six goals in Virginia's victory over Elon. Clark went on to record 14 hat tricks in her first season in Charlottesville and led the team with 75 points. She broke the program record for goals by a freshman with 64 and finished fourth in the ACC in scoring with 3.20 goals per game.

Clark's best games came against UVA's toughest competition. She scored four goals against Maryland, five goals against Boston College, and four goals against North Carolina - all teams who ended up making appearances in the Final Four. Clark delivered another six-goal performance in what was essentially a do-or-die game for Virginia against Syracuse in the ACC Tournament. Behind six goals and an assist from Clark, the Cavaliers took down the No. 3-ranked Orange in a massive upset. More importantly, the win guaranteed UVA a .500 record for the season, which is a requirement in order to be eligible for the NCAA Tournament. UVA received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, extending the Cavaliers' streak to 26-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. Virginia has still never missed the tournament in head coach Julie Myers' 27 years in Charlottesville.

Clark added another four-goal outing in UVA's 13-11 victory over USC in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before Virginia fell to eventual national champion North Carolina in the second round.

Clark has racked up the accolades since the end of the season. She became the second Cavalier to ever win ACC Freshman of the Year, joining Sammy Mueller (2017). Clark was named to the All-ACC Second Team and the All-ACC Freshman Team. She earned an honorable mention on Inside Lacrosse's All-America teams and was also voted the VaSID Rookie of the Year.

Rachel Clark accomplished all of this in just her first season in a Cavalier uniform. With Clark leading the charge, the next few springs at Klockner Stadium could be incredible for the Virginia women's lacrosse team.

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