Virginia Women's Lacrosse Scores Record 21 Goals in First Round Win Over LIU

Matt Newton | May 10, 2024

Kate Miller celebrates after scoring a goal during the Virginia women's lacrosse game against LIU in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship at Klockner Stadium. / Virginia Athletics

Any concerns about how the Cavaliers would respond after their humbling loss to Syracuse in the ACC semifinals two weeks ago were eventually answered. After taking one quarter to shake some of the rust off and identify points of weakness in their opponent, Sonia LaMonica's team delivered a second-quarter knockout.

No. 5 Virginia women's lacrosse (15-4) used a dominant10-1 second-quarter burst to seize control of the game and ultimately posted a single-game NCAA Tournament school record 21 goals in a dismantling 21-6 victory over Long Island University (11-8) in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship on Friday at Klockner Stadium.

Though it would eventually be a record-breaking day for the UVA offense, it didn't start off that way, as the Cavaliers didn't score until more than nine minutes had elapsed and trailed 2-1 late in the opening quarter. Kiki Shaw and Kate Miller both scored unassisted goals to get the Hoos going and then Miller scored again to put Virginia in front 4-3 at the end of the first quarter.

Clearly, Virginia figured something out offensively in the final few minutes of that first period because the second quarter wound up being an offensive clinic for the Cavaliers, who put 14 of their 15 shots on cage and had 10 of those shots find the back of the net. Miller continued her big day with two more goals in the second and Katia Carnevale and Mackenzie Hoeg each scored twice in the second as well. LIU scored only once in the second quarter, a goal that served as the lone reprieve during a 14-1 Virginia run that went from the end of the first quarter to the late stages of the third.

“I think we stayed the course. I thought that in the first quarter LIU obviously were going to come out firing. It’s the tournament so everyone is excited to be there," said UVA head coach Sonia LaMonica after the game. "I thought we were a little bit slow and a bit hesitant. We weren’t activating off-ball on offense as well as we could, but we talked through that and pushed through that. The second quarter was huge. That’s where we really started to play our game and opened the game up, so I was really pleased with that…Now that we’ve got that game under our belt, I think we will continue to grow our confidence to turn around and see a great contest on Sunday.”

Virginia led 14-4 at halftime and that lead only grew, as LIU scored only twice for the remainder of the game and the Cavaliers cruised to a 21-6 victory. UVA outshot LIU 36-15, putting 28 of those shots on goal. The Hoos caused nine turnovers, while turning it over only six times themselves and going a perfect 12/12 on clears.

On to round ✌️!
🔥🔥🔥#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/zhS6aP1mLn

— Virginia Women's Lacrosse (@UVAWomensLax) May 10, 2024

Kate Miller led the way with five goals on seven shots and Katia Carnevale was even more efficient, scoring four goals on five shots. Kiki Shaw and Mackenzie Hoeg each had a hat trick and Morgan Schwab had one goal and six assists, leaving her just seven assists shy of UVA's single-season assist record, currently held by Lindsay Sheehan with 66 in the 1986 season.

The 21 goals broke the program's single-game NCAA Tournament scoring record of 20 from 1999 and 2002. The victory gave the Cavaliers 15 wins on the season, their first time reaching the 15-win threshold since they reached the national title game in 2007.

The win advances the Cavaliers to the second round, where they'll face Florida (18-2), who defeated North Carolina 17-8 in the second game of Friday's doubleheader, on Sunday at 1pm at Klockner Stadium.