UVa secures 7th straight win

Heading into Sunday’s Virginia-Cornell clash, coach Dom Starsia said he expected fans to get their money’s worth.
He was certainly right about that.
On an unseasonably warm March day that saw the game-time temperature touch 80 degrees, a crowd of 4,547 was treated to some exciting end-to-end lacrosse.
In the end, No. 1-ranked Virginia — behind three goals apiece from Shamel Bratton and Steve Giannone — overcame a one-goal halftime deficit to down No. 4 Cornell, 14-10, at Klockner Stadium.
Virginia (7-0), which knocked off Syracuse at the Carrier Dome last weekend, added another impressive win to its ledger and stayed undefeated.
“I was more impressed with us today than I was on Friday up at the dome,” Starsia said. “I thought this was a gut-check win for us.
“This was a good team that had a week to prepare for this. It felt like we were a little tired and I give our kids a lot of credit for working hard and taking control of the game in the second half.”
Cornell (2-1) was led by Ryan Hurley’s four goals. However they all came in the first half.
Cornell outplayed Virginia the first 30 minutes. The Big Red won nine of 15 faceoffs and outshot UVa, 26-22. Behind Hurley, they led 7-6 at the half. It was the first time this season that Virginia had trailed at any point in a game.
“We knew from the beginning that this was going to be a tough test for us defensively,” said Virginia goalie Adam Ghitelman, who had 10 saves. “They were making cuts in the crease that we weren’t able to stay with.
“In the second half, we definitely locked down. We talked about that during halftime — that we had to stick to the guys in the crease.”
One of the keys for Virginia was putting the clamps on Cornell sniper Max Seibald, who had four goals and two assists in the team’s first two games. UVa held Seibald to just a goal on the afternoon.
“The scouting report was that he was big and fast and could go both ways,” said Virginia defender Mike Timms. “That’s kind of what he did all day. He was a tough load to handle.
“I think we knew that no matter who was on him, we were going to have to have some help. We did a good job sliding when we needed to and got the ball out of his hands.”
Virginia took the lead in the third quarter, scoring the first three goals — Giannone, Brian Carroll and Bratton — to go up 9-7. A George Huguely goal on an assist from freshman Steele Stanwick put Virginia up 10-8 at the end of the third quarter.
UVa took command of the game at the start of the fourth quarter, scoring four straight goals for its biggest lead of the game, a 14-8 margin.
“I never really felt comfortable until I looked up at the clock and there were about five minutes to play and we had a four or five-goal lead,” Starsia said.
Overall, Starsia — whose team hosts Vermont on Tuesday — was very pleased with his team’s performance.
“I’d like to see us play well for 60 minutes,” he said, “but it was especially satisfying for us to step up in the second half and get this win today.”
Added Carroll, who had two goals and three assists: “On a day when we didn’t necessarily play our best and made some mistakes, we were still able to pull it together against a very, very good Cornell team. It’s a good win for us.”