Virginia lacrosse seasons end

Sunday was a day the Virginia Lacrosse programs would like to forget, and quickly. Both the men's and women's teams faltered in the NCAA tournament, ending their 2015 seasons in disappointing fashion. The men's team fell to Johns Hopkins by a final score of 19-7, while the women's team fell to Penn State by a final score of 13-11.

First, the seventh seeded men's team hosted Johns Hopkins in a rematch of a close, high-scoring game that the Hoos took in overtime back in March. Well, this didn't go as well. Hopkins struck first and Virginia answered quickly. That was about as good as it was going to get for the next three quarters as Hopkins used an 11-0 run to crush the spirit of the team and the Virginia faithful in the stands.

Ryan Brown led the Blue Jays with four goals and two assists, Conor Reed dished out six assists, and the Stanwick brothers (Wells and Shackleford) combined for five goals and four assists. Hopkins scored in just about every fashion imaginable, including behind the back and around the world trick shots from the Stanwicks. As a dagger, Hopkins used an extra man opportunity to flawlessly execute a hidden ball trick.

Everything was going right for the Blue Jays, and just about everything was going wrong for Virginia. Second year goalie Matt Barrett had been absolutely phenomenal all season, but picked a bad day to go ice cold. Coach Starsia pulled Barrett with 7:37 left in the third quarter after zero saves and giving up 16 goals. Hopkins shot over 50% in the first half, cruising to a 13-2 half time lead. First year Will Railey, who spelled Barrett in the third quarter, amassed six saves.

Barrett's counterpart on the other end, Eric Schneider, played out of his mind, finishing with 14 saves and six goals against. Virginia helped his cause early with some stick-side-high shots, building Schneider's confidence and sending the ball back to their defensive end after just one shot a lot of times.

Ryan Lukacovic and Greg Coholan each had two goals, and seniors Ryan Tucker, Owen Van Arsdale, and Tyler German all scored in their final game at Klöckner Stadium.

Stay tuned later for a full season recap and look forward at next season when Virginia brings back a lot of pieces and adds some new faces.

Following the men's drubbing, the women's team hosted Penn State in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Penn State controlled most of the first half, taking an 8-5 lead into halftime.

Virginia rallied, tying the game at nine a piece with 12:34 remaining, but the Nittany Lions scored three straight to take a 12-9 lead. The Hoos were unable to climb back out of the hole and PSU held on for a 13-11 victory.

Liza Blue and Kelly Boyd each had hat tricks, and the dangerous Casey Bocklet finished her time at Virginia with a two goal and two assist performance. Penn State's goalie finished with an incredible 14 saves.