Charlottesville, Va. – The Virginia Tech lacrosse team defeated rival and eighth-ranked Virginia 20-15 Saturday evening to earn the program's first ACC victory over the season to carry momentum into the postseason, which begins next week.
"That win was huge for us, our kids played well today," Coach Sung said postgame. "We played as a team and our offense was clicking and in sync which was great to see with 10 assists on the 20 goals. Emma Crooks was the difference in the first half on the draw circle. We didn't let them have many shots out there."
The 20 goals scored was a season high for Tech.
Virginia Tech, (5-10, 1-8) shot out to a 5-0 lead in the first eight minutes of the game with goals from Sarah Lubnow, Crooks, Paige Petty and sophomore Paige Tyson who has a penchant for scoring against the Cavaliers.
The Hokies' onslaught did not stop there was the team would pour in 13 goals in the first frame, a season-high for a half in 2021.
Virginia, (8-7, 3-7) which lost for the fifth consecutive game, started to close the gap in the second half, but each run was met with a score from Tech. In the final minutes, the margin slid back to just five, after over 40 minutes since the last point when the game was that close.
The Hokies saw several athletes produce season and career highs in the game beginning with midfielder Petty who scored six goals, the most for any Hokie in 2021. With her third tally, the Bernardsville, New Jersey native became the first Hokie to ever tally 200 in a career.
She stands two points shy of becoming the program's all-time leader in points.
Petty also had a season-high 11 draw controls.
Senior attacker Sarah Lubnow continued her fine form scoring three times and adding three assists. Tech's point leader in 2021 moved up to fourth all-time with 53 assists in her career. Her 23 this season is the fifth-highest tally in a single season at Tech.
Attacker Sara Goodwin scored six points of her own, a career-high. She provided five assists to take her season tally to 14.
Crooks corralled a season-high seven draws in the game and also added three goals.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
•Tech won the battle on the draw circle 21-16.
•The Hokies outshot the Cavaliers 41-26.
•Virginia had 17 turnovers, the Hokies just 12.
GAME NOTES
•Virginia Tech is now 3-24 against Virginia.
•John Sung's record moves to 45-37 at Virginia Tech and 145-82 in his career as a head coach.
•Tech is 2-4 all-time on April 24.
•Tech improved to 14-2 all-time in games that Paige Petty records five or more goals.
•The game was the Hokies' first 20-goal outing since scoring 20 at Cincinnati February 26, 2020.
•Tech's last win against a top 10 opponent came on Feb. 24, 2018 vs. No. 10 Duke 17-14.
•The victory was the highest ranked win for the program since beating No. 7 Virginia 10-9 in overtime in 2012.
•The win was the program's first at Virginia.
NEXT TIME ON THE FIELD
•The Hokies will compete next at the ACC Tournament held at Dorrance Field in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Their opening round game will be on Wednesday, April 28 against the second-seeded Syracuse Orange on ACC Network.
In the regular season meeting, Syracuse won a 17-10 contest at the Carrier Dome.Gallery: (4-24-2021) 2021 LACROSSE AT VIRGINIA
