#6 Virginia improves to 3-0 after 20-13 win over Siena

The Virginia Cavaliers cruised to their third victory of the season as they handled the Siena Saints 20-13. Zed Williams led the way for the #6 Hoos with four goals and two assists, and first year Michael Kraus added three goals and three assists in the win. Ten different players scored goals for Virginia in the game as attackman Joe French also added a hat trick and first year Milan Murray had the first two goals of his career. Mike D’Amario, the reigning offensive ACC Player of the Week, and AJ Fish both chipped in two goals and two assists.

Virginia jumped out to a 3-0 start on a goal by Williams and two by Kraus, but Siena tied it up at three-all with 5:29 remaining in the first quarter. From there, the Hoos rattled off the next five goals to take control of the game. The Cavaliers added another five goals in the second quarter, taking a 13-6 lead into halftime. The Hoos were very efficient in the first half, scoring on 13 of their 29 shots (44.8%).

D’Amario kicked off the third quarter with this score:

Siena closed to within six at 16-10, but Murray answered with his second of the game:

Virginia finished the game with 52 shots and grabbed 60 ground balls to just 42 and 44 for Siena, respectively. Williams’ four goals came on seven shots, and he led the team with seven groundballs. Long stick midfielder Cooper Fersen had three caused turnovers, and first year defender Jared Conners chipped in six ground balls. In cage, Will Railey rebounded from a slow outing against Drexel with 13 saves before he was spelled by Ryan Montgomery and Will Hudson in the fourth quarter.

Over their first three games, Lars Tiffany’s squad is averaging a blistering 18 goals per game. Williams leads the team in points with seven goals and 10 assists, with D’Amario in second with 10 goals and three assists.

Next up, Virginia heads to Penn on Saturday, which will be shown on ESPN3 at 1pm.