North Carolina
Virginia
Tar Heels Fall At Virginia In NCAA Quarterfinals, 14-8
May 19, 2007 | Women's Lacrosse
May 19, 2007
Charlottesville, Va. - Virginia jumped out to a 7-1 lead by halftime and held on to defeat North Carolina, 14-8, in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon at Klockner Stadium. The Cavaliers led 10-2 with just over 20 minutes left in the second half, then withstood a Tar Heel rally to hang on for the victory.
With the win, Virginia advances to next weekend's NCAA Final Four. The Cavaliers will play Duke in the second national semifinal on Saturday May 26 in Philadelphia, Pa. The Blue Devils defeated Johns Hopkins in Durham, N.C., on Saturday afternoon.
The victory for UVa was its second of the season over UNC. The two teams split a pair of meetings earlier this spring, with Carolina winning 16-7 in Chapel Hill in the regular season and Virginia winning 12-6 in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship game in Chapel Hill.
The Tar Heels on Saturday were led by Christina Juras' three goals. Jenn Russell scored twice for UNC, while Kristen Taylor had a goal and an assist. Megan Bosica and Chrissy Rude scored single goals for the Tar Heels and Meg Freshwater had an assist.
Kate Breslin led Virginia with five goals and two assists. Ashley McCulloch had three goals and two assists, Megan Havrilla and Blair Weymouth scored two goals apiece. Virginia controlled 17 draws to Carolina's seven in the game.
In the first half, Virginia dominated the early portions of play, jumping out to a 4-0 lead by the 14:40 mark. Weymouth scored the first goal of the game at the 26:33 mark on a free position attempt after a Jenn Cook foul. McCulloch followed at 22:44 with a point-blank shot off an assist from Jess Wasilewski. Breslin followed with back-to-back unassisted goals to make it 4-0 Cavaliers and force a Tar Heel timeout with 14:40 to go before halftime.
Virginia scored again after the timeout with Havrilla scoring off a pass from Breslin to make it 5-0 UVa. Carolina finally got on the scoreboard at the 8:59 mark when Juras scored an unassisted goal, curling around the net and beating Cavalier keeper Kendall McBrearty. Virginia responded quickly with goals from Brittany Kalkstein off a Breslin assist and Kaitlin Duff on an unassisted play, making the score 7-1 Cavs at the break. Virginia dominated possession in the first half, winning seven of nine draw controls in the opening 30 minutes.
In the second half, McCulloch scored less than two minutes into the period off a rebound in front of the Tar Heel cage, making the score 8-1 UVa. Less than 30 second later, McCulloch scored again, this time off a free position attempt to make it 9-1. Carolina broke the Cavalier run when Bosica scored on a free position try with 24:46 left to play, making it 9-2 Virginia. Breslin made it 10-2 Cavs at the 20:14 mark, rebounding her own free position miss and scoring in one quick motion.
The Tar Heels then rallied for four consecutive goals in less than four minutes to make things interesting. Taylor scored an unassisted goal at the 18:12 mark to cut the lead to 10-3. Cook won the ensuing draw and Russell then took the ball from midfield and put an unassisted goal past McBrearty to make it 10-4 Cavaliers, forcing a UVa timeout. Rude scored 21 seconds later off a pass from Taylor to cut the lead to 10-5. Russell scored her second goal of the game at the 14:41 mark to cut the lead to 10-6, using a stutter-step move to beat a defender to the cage.
Weymouth broke the 4-0 Tar Heel scoring run with an unassisted goal at 9:35 that made it 11-6. Breslin then scored back-to-back goals to increase the lead to 13-6 and put the game out of reach.
McBrearty played well in the cage for Virginia, recording several saves of short-range Tar Heel shots and finishing with 14 saves and eight goals allowed. Kristen Hordy started in goal for the Tar Heels and allowed 14 goals and recorded nine saves.
