No. 1 Virginia holds off No. 18 Lehigh, 12-8

Virginia men’s lacrosse improved to 2-0 on the season with its second ranked win, this one over No. 18 Lehigh on Saturday afternoon. The Cavaliers jumped out to an early lead before cruising to a 12-8 win. Michael Kraus paced the Virginia offense with four goals and one assist and became the fourth Cavalier to hit the 100 goals and 100 assist mark in his career. Goalkeeper Alex Rode — fresh off a 19-save performance against Loyola — notched 11 saves in the victory.

Kraus got the scoring started just 40 seconds into the contest, and scored three of the team’s first four goals.

Cormier, who had three goals in the season opener, built the Virginia lead to 6-1 to end the first quarter with his lone goal of the game.

Lehigh kept the pressure on with three straight goals to start the second quarter. Virginia made things miserable for the Mountain Hawks in the clear, holding Lehigh to a 17-for-24 clearing day (71%). That directly led to a goal in an unsettled situation as Peter Garno ended a 9:18 scoring drought to give the Hoos a 7-4 lead.

Another strong defensive play led to a fast break that ended with Laviano finishing Kraus’s 100th career assist. Kraus joins Kevin Pehlke, Danny Glading, and Steele Stanwick as Cavaliers that hit the 100-100 club, and is the 10th player in ACC history to do it.

Dox Aitken and Matt Moore ripped absolute lasers from outside to keep Lehigh at arm’s reach, the latter of which came on an extra man opportunity

Kraus’s final tally of the game came with 9:14 to play in the game, and Moore’s third goal of the game trickled into the cage off of a save from Lehigh goalie James Spence. Spence finished with 14 saves for the Mountain Hawks, and spent a minute (unreleasable) in the penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Moore matched his output from the first game with three goals and two assists, and Cormier added two assists to go with his one goal. Long stick midfielder Jared Conners notched the 14th goal of his career in the win.

Check out the full highlights:

Next up, Virginia hosts Princeton on Saturday at noon.