WOMEN’S LACROSSE: Hat trick for the ‘Hoos

Up by one with another three-minute overtime period to play, Virginia had to find a way to kill the clock and hold on to the ball. For three painstaking minutes they did just that.
“I don’t think I breathed,” said Virginia goalie Kendall McBrearty, who watched from the mad scramble of the Cavaliers’ stall from the opposite end. “That was the longest three minutes of my life.”
The stress proved worth the headache as Virginia won its third straight ACC Tournament title with a 10-9 victory over Maryland Sunday at Scott Stadium. The Cavaliers stormed back from a five-goal deficit — a near-carbon copy of the Cavaliers’ comeback victory over Duke in Friday’s semifinal.
Once again Virginia went down 8-3, this time early in the second half. And once again, the Cavaliers ripped off a six-goal run to take a 9-8 lead late in regulation that Maryland, like Duke, quickly evened at 9-9.
Virginia notched the game-winner with eight seconds left in the first overtime after a steady, patient offensive possession that took much of the initial three-minute period. After the Cavaliers’ set play broke down, junior Blair Weymouth improvised, stepping in with the ball to draw teammate Ashley McCulloch’s defender. As soon as the double team collapsed on Weymouth she flipped the ball to McCulloch, who scored from just outside the crease.
“It was kind of ad-libbing there at the end,” McCulloch said. “I just knew there
wasn’t that much time left. She just flipped me the ball and I spun and shot.”
From there, Virginia scrambled to hold on to the ball, winning the opening draw of the second overtime and never allowing Maryland to take possession despite a couple of close calls on ground balls. One timeout by the Virginia bench was well-timed as Kaitlin Duff was trapped along the sideline.
“That pressure came early — we thought that maybe we’d have a minute of breathing room but Maryland did a great job of pressuring out,” said Virginia coach Julie Myers. “We thought maybe for a minute we could hold them tight with the fear that we might go to goal but they didn’t buy it.”
As soon as time expired, the entire Virginia bench sprinted towards Kendall McBrearty and tossed the tournament’s MVP to the ground before dog piling on top of the senior.
McBrearty allowed just three goals in the second halves and overtime periods of the semifinal and final. She had five critical second-half saves against the Terrapins and eight for the contest.
Virginia dominated on loose balls with 11 total ground balls to Duke’s four pick-ups. The Cavaliers’ midfield, led by All-Tournament team selections Claire Bordley and Brittany Kalkstein helped lead the effort.
“That’s just a trait of a solid Virginia lacrosse team,” Bordley said. “We’re going to grub and we’re going to be clean and aggressive and come up with the ball when we need to.”
Kalkstein, McCulloch and Kaitlin Swaggart led a balanced Virginia scoring effort with two goals each. The balanced effort made it tough for the Terrapins to key on any one player when Virginia had the ball on offense. Jenny Hauser had a goal and an assist en route to being named to the All-Tournament team.
The game was the first-ever overtime final in ACC tournament history, and was also Myers’ 200th victory. The coach has amassed a 200-59 record in 13 years at Virginia.
Maryland struggled to score in the second half, which was part of the Terps problem against North Carolina in the semifinal. After putting together a six-goal lead in the first half, Maryland held on for a 6-4 victory.
“We had some openings in the second half, it wasn’t for lack of opportunities,” said Maryland coach Cathy Reese. “We just didn’t finish on them.”
All-Tournament team selections Dana Dobbie and Kelly Kasper led the Terrapins with four points each. Dobbie finished with a hat trick. Her final two goals came back-to-back near the end of the first half to extend Maryland’s halftime lead to 7-3.
Virginia will now get almost two weeks off before starting NCAA tournament play May 11. The tournament bracket will be announced May 5.