Schwab's Eight Assists Fuel Virginia Blowout of Richmond

Is Virginia a dark-horse ACC championship contender under first-year coach Sonia LaMonica? The Cavaliers will find it difficult to fly under the radar if they keep playing like this.

Ranked 15th in the latest USA Lacrosse Division I Women’s Top 20, Virginia scored 16 unanswered goals and held Richmond scoreless for more than 45 minutes in a 20-5 victory Wednesday over the Spiders.

Just last year, Richmond, a perennial thorn in UVA’s side, defeated the Cavaliers in double overtime. This game was nowhere near as close.

Morgan Schwab set Virginia’s single-game record with eight assists in the onslaught. The Cavaliers’ top scorer, Schwab leads the country with 30 assists in seven games and is up to 128 for her career — the latter mark just one shy of UVA all-time leader Lindsay Sheehan.

Virginia improved to 6-1, its sole loss coming against North Carolina in an overtime thriller. The Cavaliers resume ACC play Saturday at No. 6 Notre Dame

Also Wednesday:

Allison Drake scored four goals and sparked a three-goal Drexel run in the fourth quarter that gave the Dragons enough cushion to defeat previously unbeaten Navy 13-12. Drake broke a 10-10 tie with a free position goal with 8:45 remaining and scored again a little more than a minute later.

Boston College runs this town. The Eagles eclipsed the 20-goal mark for the fourth time this season in a 23-5 victory over Boston University. Rachel Clark and Kayla Martello each scored four goals and Mckenna Davis had five assists. BC has responded to last week’s loss to Northwestern by outscoring its last two opponents by a combined 43-12 score.

Japanese lacrosse sensation Kokoro Nakazawa scored a career-high six goals and added two assists in Louisville’s 18-13 win over Cincinnati.

Johns Hopkins tuned up for its Crown Lacrosse Classic showdown with Stony Brook with a 21-3 blowout of Vanderbilt. Fourteen different players scored for the Blue Jays, whose 21 goals were their most since a 2010 win at George Washington.

Things are looking up for Lindenwood in year two at the Division I level. The Lions defeated Akron 15-7 to improve to 6-1.

Stonehill and Winthrop combined for 45 goals, with the Skyhawks prevailing 26-19.

Maggie Hall set Florida’s single-game record with eight assists and the Gators’ snapped UC Davis’ five-game winning streak with a 21-7 victory in San Diego.

Sydni Black scored a career-high seven goals and Loyola stretched a 12-goal run over three quarters to easily dispatch of Georgetown 17-5.

Mia Mascone had eight goals and three assists as Brown bounced back from its first loss of the season with a 20-9 win over Bryant. The Bears were coming off a heartbreaking defeat at Harvard in which they relinquished a five-goal fourth-quarter lead and lost on a pair of goals in the final 25 seconds.

Maryland eclipsed the 20-goal mark for the first time this season, defeating William and Mary 20-5. Hannah Leubecker and Maggie Weismann each posted a hat trick.