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The University of Virginia men’s lacrosse team dropped a hardfought game to Johns Hopkins University 12-11 on Saturday in Baltimore. Always a tough out at home, the Blue Jays were able to take an early 4-0 lead in the first quarter, riding the wave of a large and raucuous crowd. The Cavaliers, down 7-3 at the half, came out of the locker room hot in the third quarter, scoring 6 goals and evening the score at 9-9. JHU was too much down the stretch however as they came up with clutch goals in the fourth and were able to hold off a furious Cav comeback, including a barrage of shots all the way to the final whistle.

The Cavs were lead by Steele Stanwick who tallied 7 points on 3 goals and 4 assists. Shamel Bratton and Rob Emery chipped in two goals apiece, while Nick O’Reilly had two assists. Matt White also had a goal and an assist. Adam Ghitelman had 9 saves in goal. JHU got hat tricks from Chris Boland and Lee Coppersmith, while Pierce Bassett recorded 14 saves in the net.

UVA moves to (7-2) on the year and face ACC foe Maryland at Scott Stadium this Saturday April 2, 2011.

The University of Virginia women’s squad did not fair much better, falling to Duke 11-8 in Charlottesville Saturday. Duke used a second half surge to break a tie game wide open and hold on for the victory. UVA got 3 goals and an assist from Josie Owen and 2 goals and 2 assists from Charlie Finnigan. Kim Kolarik came up with 9 saves in the goal.

The loss dropps UVA to 5-4 on the season and 0-3 in the ACC. They travel to Old Dominion in a weekday matchup on Wednesday.

High School

3/25

Boys

St. Anne’s-Belfield 9, St. Stephen/St. Agnes 3

Girls

Charlottesville 12, Eastern View 14
St. Anne’s-Belfield 19, St. Catherine’s 4
Western Albemarle 14, Rockbridge County 3

3/26

Boys

Covenant 12, Fork Union Military Academy 6
Blue Ridge School 18, CM Wright (MD) 6
St. Anne’s-Belfield 7, St. Albans (DC) 3
Woodberry Forest 6, St. Marys Ryken (MD) 17

On Saturday April 2nd the UVA men’s lacrosse team will play Maryland at 12:00pm in beautiful Scott Stadium. This will be an amazing day for college lacrosse. The game will be played before the UVA Football team’s spring game.

Before this game the Charlottesville Chapter of US Lacrosse, in conjunction with ACAC and the UVA Bookstore will hold a free shooting clinic. Ben Rubeor, a UVA lacrosse alumni, along with his friends from the 2006 National Championship team, will host this free shooting clinic. The clinic will be geared toward elementary and middle school players, but all are welcome to attend. There will be contests and raffle prizes during the event which runs from 10:00 am to 11:00 am with an autograph session to follow.

The clinic will be held at the O-Hill field located at the corner of Alderman Rd and McCormick Rd (diagonally across from the AFC).

More information on this clinic can be found here.

We hope you all can get out and enjoy what we hope will be a wonderful day of lacrosse. This should be a spectacular event that combines the interests of the entire UVA sports community with a big men’s lacrosse ACC matchup followed by Coach Mike London leading his players in their annual Blue Orange Spring Game. Hope to see you there!

Here is your roundup of all the week’s lacrosse action in and around Charlottesville:

UVA Men

The University of Virginia men’s lacrosse team defeated #20 Ohio State at Klockner stadium to a packed house on a glorious Saturday afternoon. The weather was perfect, the crowd enthused and the Cavaliers on point as they took care of business against the Buckeyes. Overcoming a sluggish start and a furious comeback that came up short, UVA put on an offensive display in the middle periods, scoring early and often against one of the nation’s better defenses. Steele Stanwick paced the Cavs with 4 Goals and a helper, while Rhamel Bratton added 4 goals of his own.

It was a physical matchup that saw plenty of bodies flying around. There were two blow-to-the-head penalties, one of the 2-minute variety, but overall it was just a hard hitting contest with minimal chippiness. Logan Schuss led all scorers with 5 goals, leading a spirited effort in the second half which saw the Buckeyes score 6 of the final 8 goals of the game.  It was not enough to overcome the 7 goal hole they dug themselves in the first half, however and UVA moves to 7-1 on the season.

You can read full reports and complete stats on the game, along with video highlights, from the University of Virginia, Inside Lacrosse, and Lax Power.

#2 ranked Virginia is back in action on March 26 when they travel to Baltimore to contest Johns Hopkins for the Doyle Smith Cup. The game will be televised live on ESPNU. Faceoff is slated for 2 p.m.

UVA Women

The UVA women’s team squeeked out another victory at home, beating Princeton 10-9 in the first half of Saturday’s double header with the men. Riding the hot scoring touch of juniors Ainsley Baker, Charlie Finnigan, Julie Gardner and Josie Owen, the Cavaliers were able to hold of the #15 team in nation at home. Finnigan and Gardner’s tallied three goals a piece, while Gardner also tacked on one assist for a game-high four points; Owen contributed two goals and Baker added one. It was the second big win for the team who erased a 7 goal defecit for a comback, emotional victory over #16 William & Mary on Wednesday.

You can read reports on the contest, along with video highlights and complete stats at the University of Virginia.

High School

3/15

Girls

 Albemarle 19, Charlottesville 9

3/17

Girls

St. Anne’s-Belfield 19, James River 3
Covenant School 12, Steward School 16
Monticello 19, Albemarle 15

3/18

Boys

Tadem Friends 8, Steward 11
Albemarle 8, Colonial Forge 3
Blue Ridge School 20, Christchurch 14
Charlottesville 8, Western Albemarle 5
Woodberry Forest 5, Winter Park (FL) 6

3/19

Boys

Monticello 12, Kettle Run 19
Covenant 4, Christchurch 11
St. Anne’s-Belfield 8, Severn (MD) 11

Girls

Monticello 19, Kettle Run 14

The Herd

Last, but not least, the Herd travelled to the beach on Sunday and had a strong showing in a rare away double-header. All around strong play on both ends of the field led to victories over the Virginia Beach Sharks and Norfolk Neptunes on a blustery day at Dre’ Bly Memorial Field. Check out pictures from the game.

Although they were just scrimmages, the Herd set the table and got the sticks warm for their first big league game at home under the lights at STAB on April 1st. That’s right. Hide the women and children, Herd v. Capital, Friday night lights on April Fool’s Day. Anything could, and will, happen.

The UVa Men’s lacrosse team has a lot to play for Saturday when #20 Ohio State rolls into Klockner stadium on Saturday. Coming off a thrilling 11-9 victory over then-#14 Cornell in the Face-Off Classic was a nice rebound after dropping one to Syracuse the week before. Now a tough home battle against an Ohio State team UVa has not faced since 2001.

To keep the momentum the Hoos will have to rely on last week’s ACC Defensive Player of the Week Adam Ghitelman and the emergence of some fresh faces at midfield including Colin Briggs and Rob Emery. It will be tough sledding against the Buckeyes, who have already pulled off one of the bigger upsets of the season, knocking off North Carolina when they were #3 in the country. They also boast a stout defense, allowing just over 7 goals per game on the season.

The game is slated for 3 pm and you can follow live stats at www.virginiasports.com. There will also be a live blog running on InsideLacrosse.com.

Inside Lacrosse put together a photo expose of UVA’s gear during the Face-Off Classic. Pretty sick, check it out.

Video of the UVA Women’s squad retiring Yeardley Love’s jersey.