Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – Locked in an offensive battle, the Virginia Tech lacrosse team retook the lead with 7:28 to play and hung on for a narrow 17-16 victory over ACC foe Louisville Saturday. The Hokies' triumph moves their record to 8-4 on the season and 1-1 in league play.
The day began with two Cardinals goals, before Tech settled in and found the net themselves through Mary Claire Byrne and Paige Petty to tie it up. From there, both teams seemed to trade blows, with the Hokies leading 9-7 at the intermission.
In the second period, Louisville scored six straight and took a four-goal lead with 21 minutes to play. But, the Hokies chipped away with spurts of their own including scoring five straight with Sara Goodwin putting them up for good at 15-14.
Brenna Shanahan for the Cards scored a goal with 1:10 to play to cut it to a one-goal game and Tech fumbled away possession, giving the opposition another chance to tie it up, but Morgan Berman was up to the task and secured the save.
Petty scored five goals and won a career high 12 draw controls in the game and Byrne scored her second career hat trick and tallied six total points, including scoring the Hokies' 17th, the game winner. She had three caused turnovers and five ground ball pickups.
Berman made 12 saves in the game, taking her career tally to 102 for the sophomore. Her last save inside of a minute, essentially sealed the win for the Hokies, who just had to run out the clock to secure their fourth straight victory.
Quoting Coach Sung
- MC Byrne came to play today, she was huge for us. That last goal was a senior moment where she really stepped up and put it away. She had six points and did some good work defensively so I am really proud of her performance today.
- Morgan had that last save that really secured it for us there and had 12 total today, which really kept us alive.
- This was almost a trap game for us, with such a big UNC game coming up and Louisville is good but I'm glad that we were able to come away with the win here.
- Conference games are always hard because we know each other and what we want to do so well. I'm proud of how we came back after that four-goal deficit with 21 minutes to go and was able to get it done.
- Once we cleaned up those turnovers, we got into a rhythm and could start to play again.
Inside the box score
- Louisville led despite a large disparity on the draw circle midway through the second half. All told, the Hokies gathered 21 while the Cardinal collected 14 draw controls in the game.
- Tech was outshot in the game for the first time in three games (36-30).
Game Notes
- The Hokies have won four games running for the first time since early in the 2018 season, which culminated in an NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance.
- This was the second consecutive meeting where the teams were separated by just one goal. In 2018, Tech earned a 15-14 victory at Louisville.
What's next
- Tech closes out its four-game home stand with a game against the North Carolina Tar Heels on Wednesday, March 27. First draw from Thompson Field is slated for 4 p.m. and the game can be seen on ACC Network Extra.
Gallery: (3/23/2019) 2019 LACROSSE vs. LOUISVILLE