Playing for the first time in 15 days, the University of Virginia women’s lacrosse team showed its rust in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. The Cavaliers missed some connections, dropped some balls, and sprung a few leaks on their patchwork defense. But as far as the Cavaliers were concerned, their 14-12 victory over Towson, Sunday at Klockner Stadium, was perfect. It allowed them to remain together for at least another week as they recover from the murder of teammate Yeardley Love.
“I know I wasn’t ready to be done. I don’t think the girls were even close to being ready either,” said Virginia coach Julie Meyers. “We still need to be together as we take these next steps. Emotionally we’ve been through an awful lot.”
No. 6 seeded Virginia (14-5) advances to the quarterfinal round where it will play No. 3 seed North Carolina (16-2) next weekend in Chapel Hill.
On Sunday, the Cavaliers wore T-shirts under their jerseys that read, “One Team. One Heart. One Love.” On the front of their jerseys were patches that read, LOVE.
“It’s a good distraction, knowing that we’re all together,” said senior Caitlin Duff, a Stone Ridge graduate who had two goals and three assists. “We’re all going through the same process. We’re playing in the honor of Yeardley and her family.”
After time expired Sunday, the Cavaliers met in a tight huddle and each emerged with a laminated white card with Love’s jersey number, 1, printed in black. The Cavs held the cards high for the record crowd of 2,270. Then they lined up to embrace Love’s mother, Sharon, and sister, Lexie, behind the Virginia bench.
“They came down when we were tied (11-11),” said Meyers. “I felt like we were gonna suddenly be okay. I thought they were gonna be our extra emotion on the side.”
The players from Towson, many of them acquainted with Love, a native of Cockeysville, Md., showed their support with orange wrist bands with Love’s initials. After the game, the Tigers gave the Cavaliers pins.
“It’s an angel with a lacrosse stick,” said Towson senior Nikki Marcinik. “It’s a little symbol, Yeardley being there the rest of the tournament, a little good luck thing.”
Virginia looked ready to break away as it took three-goal leads at the start of both halves. But Towson (13-5) wouldn’t quit as its trio of senior standouts – Jacie Kendall (four goals), Hillary Fratzke (three goals) and Marcinik (three goals) – hit a combined 10 of 19 shots.
“It was our duty to play as hard as we could against them,” said Kendall. “On the field that’s where all that drama goes away. It was our job to give them a really good game.”
Towson would have scored more if it wasn’t for the strong play of Virginia junior goalie Lauren Benner, who made six of her nine saves in the opening 14 minutes of the second half as Virginia assumed a 10-7 lead.
“Once you’re in the zone other sort of emotional, or physical, or any sort of hindrance kind of disappears,” said Benner. “You’re focusing on the ball. You’re focusing on directing your defense. You’re focusing on making that save.”
But Towson finally solved Benner and stormed back with three goals in a span of 4 minutes, 3 seconds to tie it.
Virginia finally got the lead for good with 8:26 left when senior Brittany Kalkstein scraped for an inside score. Kalkstein (two goals, two assists, three caused turnovers) then won the ensuing draw and Virginia slowed the pace.
When Love’s former roommate, senior Caity Whiteley (three goals) scored on a spin move, it put Virginia up 13-11 with 3:54 left. Towson answered with a goal but Cavaliers sophomore Charlie Finnigan (three goals) scored the clincher with 1:58 to go.
Moments later, the Cavaliers were celebrating another week together.
“Staying together and getting through each day, going out to practice, gives us the strength to move on,” said Kalkstein. “I’m so proud of our team to come out to practice every day and give it their all, to come out with that win today allows us more time with each other.”
