UVa routs George Mason in senior night showdown

By Bart Isley

Published: April 16, 2008

If Virginia has even an adequate week of practice, momentum going into next weekend’s ACC tournament is not going to be a problem.
The No. 5 Cavs dismantled a second-straight Top 20 opponent Wednesday night in a 16-3 win over No. 12 George Mason in UVa’s regular season finale. The Cavaliers played 42 minutes of shutout lacrosse from the opening draw until almost midway through the second half, when the Patriots finally broke through with just 18 minutes to play.
The Cavaliers (12-3) were hitting on all cylinders for the second straight game and imposed their will on the Patriots from the start.
Back-to-back goals by senior Kaitlin Swagart on feeds from Ashley McCulloch opened the contest. A tally by Kaitlin Duff and then three straight from Blair Weymouth pushed the advantage to 6-0 in just the first 10 minutes of play.
The Cavaliers connected on six of their first seven shots, jumping ahead much the same way they did against Johns Hopkins in a 17-6 win on Sunday.
“We came out ready to go,” Swagart said. “We wanted to be consistent everywhere, cut down on the turnovers and win draws.”
Weymouth finished with four goals to lead the Cavaliers while McCulloch dished out four assists and scored once. Duff, a sophomore midfielder, had a pair of goals and an assist while fellow sophomore Caity Whiteley scored two goals as well.
Virginia’s early lead allowed the Cavaliers to play a lot of their roster early on, and it was never really apparent that there were a number of reserves in the lineup.
“We were getting a lot of subs in there and it was nice to have them performing well,” Swagart said. “It shows that we are kind of deep.”
Virginia head coach Julie Myers indicated that practices had been competitive and high energy, so playing as many reserves and young players as possible was a reward for a solid practice performance.
Virginia goalie Kendall McBrearty, who was playing in her final regular season game as a Cavalier, didn’t really seem phased about barely missing out on a shutout — a rare feat at any level of lacrosse.
“We really wanted to come out today and play really hard going into next week,” McBrearty said. “We’re rolling, we’re having fun with this.”
McBrearty didn’t see a ton of action in the cage as Virginia’s offense dominated possession of the ball. But when the senior did get her chances, she was brilliant. Immediately after surrendering the Patriots’ first goal, she intercepted a pass on the next possession to halt the Mason attack.
“The ball must’ve seemed big to her tonight because she was able to pick off a lot of their passes,” Myers said. “They couldn’t even go near her tonight.”
The Virginia defense dominated the ground balls 20-12 in the win. The Cavs also took the edge in draw controls, 15-6.