Virginia Cavaliers women's lacrosse — Photo courtesy of Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics Communications

Second Half Surge Propels No. 1 Boston College Past No. 13 UVA Women's Lacrosse

Charlotte North scored six goals and the Eagles erased a halftime deficit en route to a seven-goal win over the Cavaliers

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
Feb 23, 2022 6:01 PM EST

In a third consecutive home game against a ranked opponent, the No. 13 Virginia women's lacrosse team hosted No. 1 Boston College on Wednesday afternoon at Klockner Stadium. The Cavaliers absorbed an early 3-0 run by the Eagles but otherwise played a brilliant first half and led 10-9 at halftime.

Boston College completely turned the tide in the third quarter, outscoring Virginia 6-1 in the period and thrashing any hope the Cavaliers had of pulling the upset of the top-ranked Eagles. The Hoos gave up 13 goals after halftime and put up just five of their own as Virginia fell to Boston College 22-15.

Boston College came out of the gates playing like the No. 1 team in the nation and the defending champions, scoring the first three goals of the game. The Cavaliers responded well, scoring four straight goals as Courtlynne Caskin and Rachel Clark alternated scoring two goals apiece to give UVA a 4-3 lead. Charlotte North, the reigning Tewaaraton Award winner, scored a goal to knot things up at 4-4, but Courtlynne Caskin and Ashlyn McGovern tallied goals to give UVA a 6-4 lead at the end of the first quarter.

North was shadowed by Virginia's Nina Garfinkel as the Cavaliers tried to prevent North from catching the ball. Even with just a few touches in the first half, North managed to record two goals and an assist before halftime. Her second goal tied the game at 8-8 with less than five minutes to play in the half, but Ashlyn McGovern responded with two more goals. BC added a goal with 45 seconds left in the half and UVA led the top-ranked Eagles 10-9 at halftime.

McGovern had four goals and an assist in the game and Rachel Clark scored four goals. Virginia had a 14-7 advantage in draw controls in the first half which allowed the Cavaliers to take a halftime lead.

In the second half, the Boston College defense smothered the Cavaliers even as they continued to have an advantage in possessions at the draw (27-14 for the game). After the Eagles scored two straight to reclaim the lead to start the third quarter, Rachel Clark scored to tie things up at 11-11. But Virginia would not score another goal until the fourth quarter.

Boston College scored four consecutive times, with the fourth coming off the stick of Charlotte North, who scored four goals in the second half and finished with six goals and an assist. Caitlynn Mossmann had five goals and an assist and Kayla Martello and Jenn Medjid had four goals and two assists apiece. The BC offense came alive with six goals in the third and seven goals in the fourth to close out the win. The Eagles led by as many as nine goals in the fourth quarter before Virginia tacked on two goals late in the game to make the final score 22-15.

Virginia suffered its third straight loss to a ranked opponent at Klockner Stadium, having lost to No. 8 Maryland (now No. 5) on Friday and No. 16 Princeton (now No. 11) on Sunday.

UVA falls to 2-3 on the season with another home game against yet another ranked opponent on the horizon with No. 16 Stanford coming to Klockner Stadium on Sunday at 11am.

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