Virginia picked up the biggest win of the Sonia LaMonica era with a 12-10 victory at No. 6 Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon. The No. 15 Cavaliers are now 7-1 with an overtime loss to North Carolina as the only blemish in LaMonica’s first year as the head coach for the Cavaliers.
Senior Morgan Schwab scored twice and added four assists to become Virginia’s all-time assists leader. Schwab now has 132 in her career, passing the mark of 129 set by Lindsay Sheehan in 1986. Schwab’s 34 assists this season leads the country.
“She’s just such a phenomenal person and player,” LaMonica said. “She’s really embracing her role and she loves to set up her teammates. It’s just really and beautiful to watch her do her dance out on the field.”
Schwab tied the school record when she fed Mackenzie Hoeg less than a minute into the game, but Notre Dame had leads of 3-2 and 5-4 in the first half.
Schwab’s assist to Hoeg with 6:11 left in the first half broke the Virginia record and gave the Cavaliers a 7-6 lead that they never relinquished.
The Cavaliers (7-1, 2-1 ACC) led by as many four goals at 11-7 after back-to-back goals by Jenna Dinardo in the third quarter, but Notre Dame came back to get within 11-10 with 11:55 remaining in the fourth quarter. Hoeg’s fourth goal of the game with 7:19 was the final tally of the game and helped the Cavaliers clinch their first win in South Bend since 2018.
Schwab’s six points led Virginia, Hoeg had the four goals and Dinardo finished with three. Virginia goalie Mel Josephson made nine saves in the win.
Madison Ahern had three goals and an assist for Notre Dame (5-2, 1-2 ACC) and Kasey Choma and Mary Kelly Doherty each had two goals and an assist.
Johns Hopkins Holds Off Stony Brook Comeback
No. 11 Stony Brook, coming off a midweek win over Syracuse, made a spirited comeback, but No. 13 Johns Hopkins picked up a big win, beating the Seawolves 14-12 at the Crown Lacrosse Classic in Charlotte.
Leading 6-5 at halftime, Johns Hopkins ripped off seven straight goals to open the second half and seemingly take control of the game. However, Stony Brook closed the third quarter with four straight goals, including two in the final 17 seconds of the quarter to close the gap to 13-9.
Stony Brook continued the momentum into the fourth quarter, pulling to within 13-12 on Isabella Caporuscio’s goal with 7:23 remaining.
Stony Brooks’ Charlotte Verhulst won the ensuing draw and the Seawolves controlled the ball for a lengthy period of time as Johns Hopkins failed to clear successfully after a Madison Doucette save.
Johns Hopkins finally cleared the ball into its offensive end with about four minutes to play and then Abbey Hurlbrink iced the game with a player-up free position goal with 1:58 remaining.
Maeve Barker and Ashley Mackin each had hat tricks for the Blue Jays, who improved to 7-2 for the season. Doucette made 14 saves in the victory.
Stony Brook (5-1) suffered its first loss of the season. Kailyn Hart (4g, 1a) and Ellie Masera (2g, 3a) each had five points for the Seawolves.
