BLACKSBURG – Putting together one of its more complete performances of the season, Virginia Tech lacrosse fell just a handful of goals short of upsetting No. 6 Virginia on Wednesday night, ultimately accepting a 14-12 defeat.
Lauren Render recorded another four-goal performance, her third in the Tech's last five conference contests, to lead the Hokies in scoring. Four other Hokies -- Kayla Downey, Claire Schotta, Paige Tyson and Olivia Vergano -- split the remaining eight goals with two apiece.
Downey's five points tied Virginia's Katia Carnevale for the most in the game, however, the Babylon, N.Y.'s achieved a mark to make her stand alone in Virginia Tech's record book. With her fourth goal contribution of the night, a score assisted by Mackenzie Beam in the third quarter, Downey set a new single-season points record with 75 (now 76) on the year.
For the fifth straight ACC game, Jocelyn Torres recorded 11 or more saves, shutting the Cavaliers down 11 times on 34 shots, including 25 on goal.
The second quarter served as the deciding period of the game, as Tech went up 3-2 with 12:31 remaining in the half before Virginia scored five of the games next six goals to take a 7-4 lead with 1:41 remaining in the half. That three-goal lead would tie the largest lead either team would hold throughout the night.
An influx of goals was well-received in the second quarter after the first 15 minutes saw the two teams commit a combined 10 turnovers, nearly half of the 22 turnovers combined over 60 minutes of play. Despite the somewhat sloppy play, Charlottesville, Va. native Claire Schotta put the Hokies on the board first before Olivia Vergano tacked on a second to give Tech its largest lead it would hold on the evening.
In the third quarter, the Cavaliers would strike early with Carnevale from the 8-meter mark just 13 seconds into the half. However, Virginia Tech had some success of its own off free-position attempts in the third quarter, as two of Render's three goals in the period came from those opportunities.
Heading into the fourth quarter, Tech trailed 11-9. Despite their best attempts of preserving possessions, committing only one turnover and offering their opponents a new look with Lauren Martin on the draw, the Hokies could only match each of Virginia's three goals.
Wednesday's game concluded the regular season for the Hokies. Tech's attention now shifts to Thursday's ACC games, which determine the location of Sunday's ACC women's lacrosse tournament first round game.
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Coach Skiera on the game:
"I'm super, super proud of our team. I thought that was the most cohesive game we've had [this season]. I thought at times our defense was absolutely electric and zippin' around out there. On the other end of the field, I thought our offense played a really complete game. [It was good] to see the energy connect from one side of the field to the other. I think consistently, too. We only had one bad quarter; it was that second quarter that was our bad quarter. Outside of that, we were evenly matched or winning the quarter, so honestly, [I'm] just really proud. In my opinion, that's how a rivalry game should be. I'm excited that it was one of our nationally televised games, so that all of HokieNation could see a really good performance from us. We battled really hard and I thought we made everyone proud."
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The loss gives the Cavaliers one point in the Commonwealth Clash, presented by Smithfield. The score for the Commonwealth Clash currently is 10.5 - 6 in favor of Virginia. For more information, visit hokiesports.com/clash.
Gallery: (4-17-2024) LAX: Virginia Game