Virginia Women's Lacrosse Uses Big 4th Quarter to Earn 13-8 Win at Louisville

After getting held to just one goal in the entire third quarter and seeing their lead dwindle to one, the Cavaliers pulled themselves together and delivered the knockout blow, a five-goal run in the fourth quarter to secure a hard-fought conference road win. No.11 Virginia women's lacrosse (11-3, 4-3 ACC) used that 5-0 run to pull away late for a 13-8 victory at Louisville on Saturday afternoon.

The Cardinals struck first and held UVA scoreless for the first five minutes of the game, but the Cavaliers then scored three goals from three different players to take the lead. Louisville scored again to make it 3-2 Virginia at the end of the opening period.

Louisville scored the equalizer to start second period, but Jenna Dinardo responded with back-to-back unassisted goals. Mackenzie Hoeg and Morgan Schwab also found the back of the net as Virginia won the second quarter 4-3 and took a 7-5 lead to the halftime break.

Dinardo scored her third early in the third quarter to stretch the UVA lead to 8-5, but Louisville then held the Cavaliers scoreless for the rest of the period. UVA attempted a game-high 12 shots in the quarter, but only put five of those shots on cage and four of them were saved by Louisville goalie Sara Addeche. Fortunately for Virginia, the Cardinals only scored twice in the period as Mel Josephson matched Addeche with four saves in the quarter to keep the Cavaliers in front 8-7 heading to the fourth quarter.

Then came the critical run, as Virginia rattled off five goals in a row, the first and last of which were both Mackenzie Hoeg goals assisted by Morgan Schwab. By the time Maggie McMahon finally got the Cardinals back on the board, the Cavaliers were in cruise control and well on their way to a 13-8 victory.

Josephson turned in a solid performance in between the pipes, posting 10 saves and allowing eight goals for a .556 save percentage.

Kate Galica followed up her 11 draw control performance against VCU on Wednesday by winning seven draws against Louisville on Saturday.

Mackenzie Hoeg led the way offensively with four goals on seven shots and Jenna Dinardo tallied three goals and one assist. Morgan Schwab had one goal and three assists and Kate Miller had one goal and two assists.

Up next, Virginia heads back to Charlottesville to prepare for a senior day showdown with No. 4 Boston College on Saturday at 4pm at Klockner Stadium.