UVA Women's Lacrosse Opens Season With 20-5 Blowout Over Liberty

Year 2 of the Sonia LaMonica era of Virginia women's lacrosse opened with an emphatic blowout victory, as the Cavaliers jumped out to a 5-0 lead and later used an 11-0 run spanning 30 minutes of gametime to cruise past the Liberty Flames 20-5 on Friday evening at Klockner Stadium.

After a standout freshman season, Jenna Dinardo appears poised for a big sophomore year as a likely candidate to be Virginia's leading scorer. Dinardo scored the first goal of the season, sparking a 5-0 run to open the game, which included goals from five different Cavaliers. Dinardo added a second goal early in the second quarter and finished the game with four goals on 11 shots and one assist.

The visiting Flames scored their first goal with 2:45 to go in the first quarter and then responded to each of Virginia's next two goals in the second quarter, keeping the game within striking distance at 7-3 with five minutes to go in the first half. Then the Cavalier defense clamped down, holding Liberty scoreless from the 6:30 mark of the second quarter through the 6:33 mark of the fourth quarter, nearly 30 game minutes without a goal for the Flames.

That allowed Virginia to seize complete control of the game, getting goals from Abby Manalang and Alex Reilly to make it 9-3 at halftime. Dinardo scored two more goals in the third quarter, a period the Hoos utterly dominated, outscoring the Flames 6-0 with a 12-1 shots advantage, a 7-3 edge in ground balls, and an 8-4 margin in the turnover department. Virginia put it in cruise control in the fourth, coasting to a 20-5 win.

The lone blemish in the box score on the day for the Cavaliers was the draw circle, where the Flames had a 17-12 advantage. It's only the first game, but draw controls have been a weakness for Virginia for years and it could be an issue once again this season.

But on Friday night, the draw control didn't matter much as the UVA defense, buoyed by a seven-save performance from Mel Josephson, locked down Liberty and the Flames had no answer for the Cavalier offense, which didn't miss a beat after losing its top three leading scorers from a season ago in Morgan Schwab, Katie Carnevale, and Mackenzie Hoeg. Keying that strong performance, and expected to power the UVA offense all season, is a superstar cast of sophomores who gave the Cavaliers valuable contributions as true freshmen in 2024.

In addition to the aforementioned five points from Jenna Dinardo, fellow sophomores Addi Foster and Madison Alaimo also had strong showings, with Foster racking up six points on two goals and four assists and Alaimo contributing one goal and three assists. Seniors Kate Miller and Abby Manalang each scored hat tricks and Miller dished out two assists. as well. In her fifth season at Virginia, graduate midfielder Lauren Pederson scored her first-career goals on Friday night, finding the back of the net twice in the second half.

Seven freshmen made their collegiate debuts for UVA on Friday and two of them scored their first goals. Alex Reilly scored late in the first half and Jayden Piraino delivered a debut hat trick.

“I thought overall, fantastic effort. I love the fire that we started a show, more I think in the second half. Hunting ground balls more and doing it as a team," said UVA head coach Sonia LaMonica. "I think our offense had a phenomenal game, obviously, putting up twenty goals. There was great chemistry and great connections. Mel, in the cage today, made some phenomenal plays. I’m really, really pumped about her play.”

Game one and game won! Highlights from today's win vs. Liberty!#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/o0o8QNSf95
— Virginia Women's Lacrosse (@UVAWomensLax) February 7, 2025

Up next, Virginia will hit the road and play its first ranked opponent of the season, taking on No. 17 Princeton on Saturday, February 15th at noon.

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