April 10, 2014

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The No. 16 Virginia women's lacrosse team (8-6, 2-3 ACC) defeated No. 6 Boston College (10-4, 2-4 ACC) 16-14 on Thursday (April 10), the fourth-straight win for the Cavaliers.

"It was really nice to see us start strong, jump out to an early lead and be able to control the tempo of the game," said Virginia head coach Julie Myers. "We played a little slower than we typically do, but we wanted to beat BC at their own game. They usually average about three minutes per possession. We wanted to make sure we weren't playing defense for that long, so we wanted to frustrate their attackers by them simply not having the ball. I think it rattled their attack just enough, though they were able to rattle off those goals to end that first half. I think our team really rallied around the fourth-years, who all had big performances."

Maddy Keeshan (Greenwich, Conn.), one of eight Cavalier seniors honored before the game as part of the annual Senior Night celebration, scored four goals. Fellow senior Liza Blue (Butler, Md.) scored three goals with three assists while also winning five draw controls. Junior Courtney Swan (Vero Beach, Fla.) scored four goals with two assists, winning six draws.

BC's Covie Stanwick had three goals and three assists. Mikaela Rix scored three goals with two assists.

Virginia held a 7-2 lead with five minutes left in the first half, but Boston College scored four goals before the break, including scoring with 3.8 seconds left in the period, to go into the break trailing by a point, 7-6.

Rix scored the first goal of the second half, knotting the game 7-7 with 24:11 remaining, the first of four ties in the game.

With the score tied 12-12, Blue started a string of four-straight Cavalier goals by scoring off a feed from junior Casey Bocklet (South Salem, N.Y.) with 10:02 remaining. Freshman Posey Valis (Baltimore, Md.) capped the run with an empty-netter with 56 seconds remaining to give UVa a 16-12 advantage. BC won the ensuing draw control, scoring 20 seconds later. The Eagles again won the draw and scored with 23 seconds left in the game to narrow the gap to 16-14. BC again won the draw control with Cali Ceglarski getting fouled with six seconds remaining, setting up a free position attempt. Senior goalkeeper Liz Colgan (Cockeysville, Md.) made a save on her shot and was able to hold onto the ball until time expired.

Colgan finished the game with 10 saves. Boston College's Emily Mata made eight.

The Eagles had a 17-14 edge in draw controls, including winning 12 in the second half. Virginia took 29 shots to BC's 27. The Cavaliers had 10 ground balls with senior Lauren Goerz (Danville, Ca.) picking up three.

The victory was Virginia's fourth win in a row and second-straight victory over a top-10 team. Virginia earned a 13-8 victory at No. 9 Notre Dame last Saturday (April 5).

The Cavaliers finish off the regular season with back-to-back ACC road games beginning with a Sunday, April 13 game at No. 2 Maryland. First draw is scheduled for 1 p.m. Virginia closes out the regular season on Wednesday, April 16 in a 6 p.m. game at Virginia Tech.