Big 2nd Quarter Drives Virginia Women's Lacrosse to 16-8 Win Over VCU

A few freshmen have played key roles for the Virginia women's lacrosse team in year 1 under new head coach Sonia LaMonica. Madison Alaimo and Jenna Dinardo have given the Cavaliers a huge boost on the attack and Kate Galica has done the same in the midfield.

Galica provided one of the most impactful individual performances of the season on Wednesday, turning perhaps UVA's biggest weakness at the draw control into a key to success, giving the Cavaliers a sizable possession advantage as No. 11 Virginia (10-3, 3-3 ACC) got back on track with a dominant 16-8 victory over VCU (4-9, 3-2 A10) on Wednesday night at Klockner Stadium.

Virginia came into this game on a two-game losing skid and the common denominator in each of UVA's three losses this season has been a distinct disadvantage in the draw circle. In those three defeats, the Cavaliers lost the draw control battle by a combined 51-31 margin. It's been an issue in virtually every game this season, though, as UVA came into Wednesday's game winning less than 42% of the draws this year.

The freshman Kate Galica provided some hope on that front, as she won 11 draws against the Rams, more than the entire VCU team combined, and Virginia owned 21 of the 28 draw controls for the game. Even with a 6-2 edge in draws in the first quarter, things were tight early on with UVA leading by just one at 4-3 at the end of the opening period.

The Cavaliers opened things up and essentially put the Rams away for good in the second quarter, holding VCU off the scoreboard entirely and winning the period 9-0 to seize control. Katia Carnevale scored four of her five goals and dished out an assist in the second quarter. Mackenzie Hoeg also scored twice in the period as Virginia turned a one-goal game into a 13-3 blowout by halftime. VCU attempted only one shot in the second and that was gobbled up by Mel Josephson, who made five saves and allowed five goals in 45 minutes of action.

The Cavaliers took their foot off the gas in the second half, with the starters resting for most of the duration of the game. VCU outscored UVA 5-3 in the second half, but the lead was never in doubt as Virginia went on to win 16-8.

Katia Carnevale led the way offensively for the Cavaliers with five goals and two assists, her third game with at least five goals this season and matching her season-high of seven points. Mackenzie Hoeg was efficient with four goals on five shots and Kate Miller tallied three goals and two assists and also had six draw controls. Kiki Shaw had two goals and Morgan Schwab had two assists.

Of course, the player of the game was the aforementioned Kate Galica, whose 11 draw controls matched the sixth-highest single-game draw total in program history. Her 55 draw controls this season are the second-most by a UVA freshman with three games left in the regular season.

Up next, Virginia heads back into conference play and hits the road to take on Louisville on Saturday at 11:30am on the ACC Network.