Virginia couldn’t be denied.

The No. 18 Cavaliers opened Friday night’s tilt against No. 10 Richmond on fire, scoring eight of the game’s first nine goals. It took Ashlyn McGovern just over 15 minutes to notch a hat trick at Richmond’s Robins Stadium, and by that point, Richmond was already too far behind to mount a comeback.

The Spiders did make it interesting, cutting the deficit to four goals when Marymargaret Quinn fed Marina Miller with 22:26 left, but Virginia scored the next three to quickly put the game back out of reach.

Virginia (2-0) avenged last season’s overtime loss to Richmond (1-1) with a convincing 15-9 win.

“Starting strong made a huge difference in the game, it energized everything we did,” UVA coach Julie Myers said in a team release. “I was very happy with our tenacity across the field and how we attacked in the first half in particular. Our defense worked hard to make stops and came up with extra possessions consistently.”

Annie Dyson also recorded a hat trick. Mackenzie Hoeg, Taylor Regan and Lillie Kloak all had three points, and Maggie Bostain scored twice. Charlie Campbell made 12 saves.

Dyson got the scoring started just over two minutes into the action, but Lindsey Frank fed Kendall Duffy 29 seconds later, tying the score at 1. Virginia then took off, scoring seven straight — bookended by each of Hoeg’s two goals.

Frank then scored twice in the span of less than a minute to end the Virginia run and make the score 8-3, but the Cavaliers answered with three straight to go ahead 11-3. They went into halftime leading 11-5.

Last season, Richmond beat then-No. 6 Virginia in double-overtime on Frank’s goal with six seconds left, giving the Spiders their first win over a team ranked in the top 10 in 14 years. It was also their first win against Virginia since March 1, 2006.

UNC Tops Florida Despite Reznick’s Career Day

Redshirt-freshman Sarah Reznick made a career-high 16 saves, but her effort were all for naught as the North Carolina defense shut down the offense of Reznick’s Florida Gators.

Scottie Rose Growney scored four goals, Taylor Moreno made 11 saves and the defense forced Florida into 12 turnovers as the No. 1 Tar Heels defeated the No. 6 Gators 11-5.

UNC (2-0) jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but Grace Haus (three goals) and Ashley Gonzalez narrowed the Tar Heel lead to 4-3 by halftime. That’s when the UNC defense dug in, holding Florida (1-1) to just two second-half goals.

Shannon Kavanagh scored her only goal of the day — her 29^th straight game with a goal — with 7:14 remaining, cutting UNC’s lead to 9-5. The Tar Heels went on to score the final two goals of the game.

Florida and UNC were even on draws, and the Gators did an exceptional job against Katie Hoeg, UNC’s all-time leader in points. Hoeg was held without a point, but the depth of UNC’s offense was on display while she was bottled up.

Nike/US Lacrosse Top 20

No. 1 North Carolina 11, No. 6 Florida 6
No. 18 Virginia 15, No. 10 Richmond 9

No. 2 Notre Dame vs. Central Michigan, PPD

Other Scores

Colgate 20, St. Bonaventure 2
Davidson 15, East Carolina 6
Fresno State 20, Kent State 11
San Diego State 11, Oregon 9
Towson 12, UMBC 5

Gardner-Webb at Mercer, PPD