Lacrosse eclipses 2016 win-total

VCU Lacrosse improved its record to 4-4 with a win over the Lady Flames of Liberty University Saturday afternoon at Cary Street Field.

The Flames entered Saturday’s game in hopes of gaining their second win of the 2017 season, but a late onslaught of goals by the Rams sealed their victory. The loss drops the Lady Flames to 1-9 on the season.

The game’s outcome Saturday was a far cry from last year’s — when the Lady Flames met the Rams on Feb. 24, 2016 in Lynchburg, Liberty won by a final of 19-9.

The Rams were the ones on fire out of the gates, as they quickly scored the first four goals of the game. The first goal of the affair came from redshirt-freshman midfielder Jenn Non just one minute in.

A give-and-go by Liberty’s Abby Britton and Courtney Brown finally put the Lady Flames on the board.

A game-high six goals came from freshman midfielder Keriann McTavish, while redshirt-sophomore midfielder Sky Hyatt added three goals and three assists. Liberty’s Brianna McCaffrey scored three goals and Kayla Foster netted two.

The Rams stormed out of the locker room once again, breaking a 6-6 tie by netting four goals in the first four minutes of the second half.

Goalkeeping was a deciding factor Saturday afternoon — VCU’s Ria Peralta made 15 saves, while Liberty goalkeeper Katherine Widrick only had nine. Peralta is No. 23 in the country in saves per game and No. 40 in total saves.

The Rams led 7-2 with 14:14 remaining in the second half, and were able to extend their advantage to 17-9 with 10:43 left to play with a barrage of late goals.

VCU closed the high-scoring game with another three goals — sophomore attacker Molly Barcikowski scored her second goal of the game, settling the final score at 21-12.

VCU had a deciding advantage over Liberty in possession, with a 27-20 advantage on ground balls.

With four wins so far this spring, the Rams have already surpassed their win total from 2016, when they went 3-14. VCU will play at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst at 3 p.m. on Mar. 31.

Keyris Manzanares, Contributing Writer