Wahoo Wire

For the past two years, the UVA women’s lacrosse team has not had much luck against Loyola. However, the 10th ranked Cavaliers finally reached a victory over the 7th ranked Loyola team, winning 14-9 to commence their season on February 18th. UVA had extremely impressive efforts from attackers Josie Owen and Ainsley Baker, as well as goalie Kim Kolarik.
The season started with a quick goal in just under a minute from first year Courtney Swan. The first half was largely a tight contest with the teams trading the lead 3 times. UVA raced to a 3-1 lead after 5 minutes before Loyola stormed back to score 3 straight goals. Eventually the half ended with UVA edging Loyola 6-5.
Once again the Cavs got off to a quick start in the second half, with Baker netting a shot in just 42 seconds with an assist from Owen. To begin the second half Virginia scored 6 unanswered goals. The second and third goals were also from the connection between Baker and Owen.

The tough Cavalier defense halted Loyola for over 20 minutes before they were able to make a shot. After their huge run, UVA also managed to score twice in the last ten minutes while Loyola scored 4 more.
Just when Loyola pushed the game to 12-7, they were on the brink of scoring an undefended shot when goalie Kolarik made an astounding save from very close range. This save definitely boosted the Cavs momentum and allowed them to keep fighting and not let Loyola back into the game. Loyola was not able to recover from UVA’s huge second half surge on offense and defense, and ended the game trailing 14-9.
The Cavaliers started four first years, Courtney Swan, Kelsey Gahan, Jess Loizeaux, and Daniele Eppler, in their first ever college game. Head coach Julie Myers had glowing reports about her youngest players. “We knew we had a first year class that was really talented that was going to help us and they certainly proved us right.”
Ainsley Baker ended the game with a career-high of 5 goals, while Josie Owen notched one goal and an incredible career-high 6 assists. Owen and Baker proved to be an unstoppable duo throughout the game. Owen assisted four of Baker’s six goals.
Overall, 7 different Cavs scored in their opener. Liza Blue, Charlie Finnigan, and Jess Loizeaux each added 2 goals for the Cavaliers, while Josie Owen, Courtney Swan, and Katie Slater recorded one goal apiece.
UVA goalie Kim Kolarik ended with 11 saves, several coming at vital moments to keep the Cavs’ momentum up. Kerry Stoothoff amassed 8 saves for Loyola.
UVA’s domination of the draw control was an important factor in the game today. They upped Loyola 18-7 in that area, though Loyola had 21 ground balls compared to the Cavs’ 18. Virginia took 29 shots opposed to Loyola’s 27.
Coach Myers recounted their huge win, saying, “Lots of players made big plays, defense made some big stops and we just chipped away and really stayed composed throughout the course of the game.”
Virginia next takes on Richmond on Wednesday, February 22nd at their home field Klöckner Stadium.