Women's lacrosse coach: Love family wanted teams to keep playing

University of Virginia women’s lacrosse coach Julie Myers said Monday that the family of slain UVa player Yeardley Love didn’t hesitate when asked if the men’s and women’s teams should continue their seasons.

“I don’t think that the Love family had any expectation or desire for either one of the programs to stop playing,” said Myers, whose team will host Towson in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday afternoon at Klockner Stadium.

“Lacrosse brought us together and lacrosse is their common theme, too, on the men’s side. The fact that they could keep playing and try and make sense of this is their mourning process.”

Some time on Tuesday, Myers said, Virginia Athletic Director Craig Littlepage asked Love’s mother, Sharon, for her “blessing” to continue play-ing.

“She gave it to him without even much of a beat — it didn’t even cross her mind that we would stop,” said Myers, adding that Love’s younger sister, Lexi, was also on board with the decision.

Yeardley Love, 22, a fourth-year player on the women’s team, was found dead in her apartment in the early morning hours of May 3.

Her ex-boyfriend, men’s lacrosse player George Huguely, was charged later that day with first-degree murder in the death. Ac-cording to court documents, Huguely admitted to police that he and Love had an altercation that included Huguely kicking in the bedroom door at Love’s apartment and shaking her to a degree that her head repeatedly banged against a wall.

The killing sent a shockwave through the University of Virginia community and beyond, and came at a point just prior to both UVa lacrosse squads preparing for play in the NCAA Tournament.

On the Monday conference call with reporters, Myers declined to answer questions about the relationship between Love and Huguely, citing the ongoing police investigation.

Men’s coach Dom Starsia also declined to discuss the case with reporters on Sunday.

Myers, however, said she quickly determined from conversations with her players that the last thing they wanted to do was stop the season. She said they were “pretty emphatic” in wanting to continue, and they believed it would be “important in their healing.”

The players, according to Myers, were also adamant in their desire for the men to keep playing — some-thing that didn’t surprise Myers. Over the years, she said, the men’s and women’s teams have shared a close connection.

Three of the pallbearers at Love’s funeral in Maryland on Saturday were men’s players.

“We respect one another to the highest degree,” Myers said. “Lots of our former players have married [players] on the men’s team.

“We’ve always been connected. We’ve got brothers and sisters who have played through the pro-grams, cousins and best friends. Our teams and programs have always been close. We have a great deal of respect for each other as coaching staffs, but also from player to player.”

During the NCAA Tournament selection show on Sunday night, the Virginia women were tabbed as the No. 6 seed.

The men, meanwhile, earned the No. 1 seed and will host Mount Saint Mary’s on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Typically, attendance for men’s games dwarfs women’s games. But that, in all likelihood, will not be the case this weekend — something Myers is well aware of. Myers said she has heard from a number of people from up and down the East Coast who have told her that they will be attending Sunday’s game in a show of support.

“The stands will be a lot more full than what we’re used to, and I imagine there’s going to be a lot more media…” Myers said. “Hopefully, by the time the game rolls around, there will just be an incredible amount of focus and deter-mination — just the desire to be together and keep healing, and getting through this process together.”