Virginia Women's Lacrosse Knocks Off No. 4 Notre Dame 12-10 on the Road
Sonia LaMonica earned her first signature victory as the head coach of the UVA women's lacrosse program as No. 13 Virginia (7-1 2-1 ACC) picked up a huge top five road win, knocking off No. 4 Notre Dame (5-2, 1-2 ACC) 12-10 on Saturday afternoon at Arlotta Stadium in South Bend.
Both teams scored in the first two minutes, but the game was a defensive stalemate after that as neither team scored for the next seven minutes. Kate Galica assisted on a Katia Carnevale goal to put UVA in front, but Notre Dame scored the next two goals. Virginia ended the first quarter with back-to-back goals, including one from Morgan Schwab with just 13 seconds remaining to give the Cavaliers a 4-3 lead at the end of the opening period.
The Fighting Irish and Cavaliers traded two-goal blows, giving the lead back and forth. A goal from Madison Ahern tied the game at six and then Schwab found Mackenzie Hoeg for a goal to make it 7-6, a score that would hold for more than six minutes until halftime. UVA turned the ball over six times in the second quarter and Notre Dame won five of the seven draw controls ,but the Cavaliers did enough on both ends of the field to mitigate that disadvantage and maintain their one-goal edge at the half.
Virginia seized control of the game with a 4-1 run to start the third quarter. After Carnevale tallied her second goal, it was freshman Jenna Dinardo who was largely responsible for that run, scoring UVA's next three goals to push the lead to 11-7, the largest of the game for either team. Notre Dame got one back with six seconds left in the period to make it 11-8 in favor of Virginia entering the final quarter.
Mary Kelly Doherty scored twice early in the fourth quarter, drawing the Fighting Irish back to within one goal at 11-10 with nearly 12 minutes left in regulation. It seemed at that point that the Cavaliers would be hard pressed to hang onto their slim lead as the fourth-ranked Irish tried to ride that momentum and complete the comeback on their home field.
Instead, those two goals by Doherty wound up being the only goals of the fourth quarter for Notre Dame, who went the final 11:55 of regulation without scoring and put only more two shots on goal, one that hit the post and one that was saved by Mel Josephson with less than a minute to go. By then, however, the Cavaliers had scored an insurance goal courtesy of Hoeg and assisted by Kate Miller with seven minutes remaining.
The UVA defense took care of the rest, smothering all of Notre Dame's offensive chances and securing the 12-10 road victory. Virginia came away with the win despite getting outshot 32-25, but shots on goal were even at 19 apiece and Mel Josephson won the goalie battle, making nine saves.
Mackenzie Hoeg led the Cavaliers with four goals on four shots and Morgan Schwab had two goals and four assists, breaking the Virginia program record for career assists, a record that had stood for 38 years.
The all-time career assists records for both the UVA women's and men's lacrosse programs fell on Saturday, as Connor Shellenberger became Virginia's all-time assists leader in the Cavaliers' 19-15 win at Towson.
Now 7-1 on the season and 2-1 in ACC play, Virginia returns home to host Pittsburgh on Saturday at 12pm at Klockner Stadium.
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