Collegiate Times

In their 15th all-time meeting, the Virginia Tech women’s lacrosse team fell to the No. 4 University of Virginia Cavaliers, 20-14 Wednesday afternoon at Thompson Field.

Coming off a 19-3 loss to North Carolina on Friday, the Hokies returned home to face an even higher-ranked conference opponent in in-state rival Virginia.

In last year’s 5-13 loss in Blacksburg, the Cavs took control and decided the game in the first three minutes. Tech was determined to not let things slip away that early this year.

“In my mind, we had really nothing to lose at this point,” said junior captain Allie Emala. “We had a really tough game last Friday and we had the weekend off to think about it and learn from it. We hurt ourselves in that game, we let the little things really affect us and today I think we cleaned that up a lot. We played with a lot of heart and determination.”

Virginia won the opening draw, but Tech’s defense challenged them to play at a slower pace. Virginia scored five goals before the Hokies were able to answer 15:47 into the first half with a shot to the back of the net by junior midfielder Liz Carpenter.

Carpenter was injured on the play, forcing an injury timeout and help from the trainer and Coach Silva off of the field. She was unable to put any pressure on her left leg.

“She hurt her calf, they think she may have hyperextended it,” said sophomore Morgan Widlake. “It was a big loss for us, because she’s usually the one that can run the whole game. Everyone else had to step up and try to fill her shoes, which is hard to do.”

The Hokies, continuing to shoot themselves in the foot, turned the ball over in the arc on attack several times. Tech, although never able to cut the lead below two goals, cut it for the first time to three, with a Dylan Garner goal to make the score 2-5.

“I think it was a lot of the usual – ground balls, 50-50 balls and stuff like that,” Widlake said when asked how the game unraveled. “They got a lot of draw controls and ended up with a lot more possessions that rallied into goals.”

At half, the Hokies trailed the Cavaliers 11-6, thanks to a 4-1 Virginia run to close out the first.

Despite the Cavs’ run, though, the Hokies came out strong to start off the second-half. Tech won the opening draw and Caitlyn Wier scored her 18th goal of the season to put the Hokies back to within four just 93 seconds in.

Later in the half, with just over nine minutes remaining in the contest, Widlake scored her third goal, completing her hat trick while cutting the Virginia lead to four.

With time dwindling down, however, the Hokies’ failed possessions, mishandled draws and turnovers came back to haunt them.

The Hokies got the ball back and had numbers, but Dylan Garner dropped a pass in front of a wide-open goal. Garner was fouled in the aftermath and given a free possession shot, but missed. That would be the last offensive opportunity for the Hokies, as Virginia played keep away for the remainder of the game.

The Hokies were found struggling to win the draw controls all game and Virginia took advantage when they did.

“The biggest thing for us is the draws – we need to win the draws and that was the biggest thing we needed today,” said Tech freshman goalkeeper Alex Gale. “Almost every goal was scored off a draw, and not a turnover. It made such a huge impact.”

Despite the loss, the Hokies looked like an entirely different team than the one that played in Chapel Hill not even a week ago.

“[Coach Silva] was very happy of how we came out and played after such a tough loss,” Emala said. “She said that there were two scored that came out of this game – one off the scoreboard and one as a life lesson. Today we had a really good life lesson, obviously not on the scoreboard, but just in learning what this team can do.

“As we keep saying to this team, we need to realize that and keep it going the next couple games, not just settle with it,” she said.

Prior to Wednesday and since 2005, Virginia had a 91-24 winning margin against the Hokies. Wednesday, however, Virginia Tech scored a program-high 14 goals against the Cavaliers, the second-highest of any Virginia opponent on the season.

“Now that we see what we can do and the potential we have as a team, we have American on Saturday, Longwood on Wednesday, and Maryland after that,” said Gale. “Our biggest goal, going into the ACC Tournament after this week, is just to keep this momentum up against them as the season winds down.”

With just three games to go before the ACC Tournament at the end of the month, the Hokies return for “Senior Day”, their last home game, this Saturday against American University at 1 p.m. at Thompson Field.