CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 10 Virginia women's lacrosse team battled hard against the top-ranked team in the nation on Sunday afternoon before falling to Northwestern, 11-10, in the regular-season finale for the Cavaliers. The win keeps the Wildcats unbeaten this season, at 15-0, while Virginia moves to 10-6 on the year.

Senior All-American Blair Weymouth led the attack with a game-high four goals and five draw controls, while junior Kaitlin Duff had three, redshirt junior Whitaker Hagerman added two and senior Ashley McCulloch had one. Senior Jenny Hauser, junior Brittany Kalkstein and Duff each added an assist.

For Northwestern, Katrina Dowd led the way with three goals, while Hannah Nielsen scored two goals to go with three assists.

In a fairly even played game, the Cavaliers held the lead with four-and-a-half minutes left before halftime, but a flurry of Wildcat goals erased Northwestern's deficit and gave the 'Cats a one-goal lead heading into the intermission.

The Wildcats got on the board first at 29:03 and added another at 26:23, before Duff tallied an unassisted score at 24:12.

Hagerman won the ensuing draw control and passed ahead to McCulloch to find Weymouth, who weaved through traffic before converting an unassisted goal to even the score at two all.

Northwestern nipped the chance of a streak with a score at 21:35, but Weymouth's back-to-back goals and then Hagerman's two-straight tallies gave Virginia its largest lead of the game, at 6-3, with 6:21 remaining in the half.

The Wildcats would fight to even the score at six in the next five minutes, before a goal from Nielson with 4.5 seconds remaining secured the halftime advantage for the Wildcats, at 7-6.

McCulloch got the scoring started in the second half, sneaking around cage and finding the back of the net 2:12 into play. Northwestern then tallied another before Weymouth fired her fourth of the contest into the goal at 23:32.

The Wildcats strung together two-straight within a minute and a half following Weymouth's score, but after eight scoreless minutes, Duff notched back-to-back scores to bring the score at 10 all, with 8:30 to play.

The next seven minutes were scoreless, before Nielson snuck around cage and got a shot past redshirt junior Lauren Benner to push Northwestern ahead one, with 1:31 left in the game.

The Cavaliers forced a turnover with 30 seconds remaining and looked to be in the clear to get a shot off, before the referee's made a call against Virginia, giving Northwestern possession. The 'Cats controlled the ball in the final seconds to secure the 11-10 win.

Prior to the start of the game, Virginia recognized its Class of 2009. Senior's Catherine Chambers, Sarah Hackman, Whitaker Hagerman, Sara Hairfield, Jenny Hauser, Jen Holden, Ashley McCulloch, Katie Shannon and Blair Weymouth were honored for their contributions to the program, their three Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, in addition to their athletic and academic accomplishments.

Up next, the fourth-seeded Cavaliers will face fifth-seed Virginia Tech in the 2009 ACC Championship this Thursday. Opening draw is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. in Blacksburg, Va.

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Senior Hannah Nielsen (Adelaide, Australia/Brighton Secondary) netted the game-winning goal with 1:31 remaining as top-ranked Northwestern outlasted 10th-ranked Virginia 11-10 at Klöckner Stadium. NU picks up its first-ever win in Charlottesville, improving to 15-0 on the year and upping its winning streak to 21 games.

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2009-04-19