February 26, 2012

Virginia junior goalkeeper Kim Kolarik made 10 saves and freshman Liza Blue netted her first career hat trick to lead the No. 6 Virginia women’s lacrosse team to a 9-7 victory over No. 12 Syracuse at Klöckner Stadium Sunday. With the win, the Cavaliers improved to 3-0 on the young season.

"The games don't get any easier, they start coming faster and more furious and to be 3-0 right now feels pretty good but we've got a lot of work ahead of us," Head Coach Julie Myers explained.

Katie Webster opened the scoring for the Orange at the 28:07 mark of the first period after intercepting a pass in the Cavalier zone. The Cavaliers responded with Ainsley Baker’s seventh goal of the season off a feed from Josie Owen at 22:26.

After a near 14-minute stretch without a goal, UVa struck with goals from Blue and Morgan Stephens just over a minute apart to take the lead, 3-2.

Syracuse pulled within one at 4-3 with 1:53 left in the half, but Owen started a 5-2 run for the Cavaliers with a goal with 21 seconds left in the period.

Kolarik made another two big saves in the second half during a 12-minute stretch where the Cavaliers held the Orange scoreless.

Syracuse scored back-to-back goals to cut the Cavalier lead to 9-7 with 5:40 left, but Kolarik made two saves from point blank range with under five minutes to go to break the Orange’s momentum.

"It's just an awesome start to have, we've played so well the last three games, and we're just so excited to go down to Maryland and start off our ACC schedule," Kolarik said.

The Cavaliers return to action March 2 when they travel to Maryland at 7 p.m.