Chapter 18

Six days later, the fourth-seeded UVA women’s lacrosse team faced third-seeded University of North Carolina. Some of the remembrances that had graced Klöckner Stadium carried over to Chapel Hill’s Fetzer Field: wristbands worn in Yeardley’s honor, a pregame moment of silence, Love’s name adorning the UVA team’s jerseys. The intervening days had been a whirlwind of grueling practice hours, commencement rehearsals, and mourning. The women tried to reignite the fire sparked during the game against Towson, but the vibe was different. Sharon and Lexie Love didn’t attend this game. Instead, they sent players text messages, including one to Kaitlin Duff that read 1-2-3-4, Go Hoos. Love’s uncle, the former UVA lacrosse player in whose footsteps Yeardley had followed, told the women that their team was “everyone’s team, the country’s team right now.” Heading into the contest, it was clear the Cavaliers were the sentimental favorites.

UNC Coach Jenny Levy sought out Coach Myers before the game to offer condolences. The two were lacrosse teammates at UVA years before and had stayed good friends as they moved on to teach competing teams. Levy’s team had a game the day of Yeardley’s funeral; her players wore wristbands with YL1 embroidered on them, and Levy sent Myers a text message and photograph of her captains wearing the bands before the game.

Myers told reporters that, aside from giving players a day off after the previous win to recuperate, they prepped for their Chapel Hill appearance as hard as ever.

“We’re making sure our game is sharp and taking breaks when we need to,” she told a reporter. “We’re still in the healing process, but still trying to get ready for the game. We’re trying to make sure we’re doing enough to be ready but not too much to overwhelm.”

But as the match began, it became quickly clear that some of the electricity had dulled. This time, as the Cavs gave up the first goal, it appeared to onlookers that the roller coaster of the past three weeks had finally caught up with the team. Instead of attacking, the players limped. They seemed drained, unfocused. Even the crowd had lost its fervor. Instead of a packed stadium with thousands of spectators, fewer than 700 people had gathered at Fetzer Field.

The Cavs found the scoreboard three minutes into the game, but UNC responded with eight more goals, jumping to a 9–1 lead. By halftime, the score was a painfully lopsided 11–2. In the end, the Tar Heels doled out a 17–7 loss—the biggest deficit the ’Hoos had endured all year—ending the mourning team’s season.

After the buzzer sounded to end the sixty minutes, the Cavaliers stayed on the field. Some slumped onto the grass, breaking into tears. Several clutched each other in hugs. They simply weren’t ready to walk away, to have the season end. They had survived so much together; the close of the season seemed to symbolize that they would now have to face things alone.

“The end of any season is a really hard, sudden ending,” Coach Myers told reporters after the game. “I think that the end to this season, given all that we’ve been through, makes it especially hard.”

Myers said she knew it wasn’t an easy victory for North Carolina, either.

“Emotionally, it was hard for them to play a hand in the ending of our season. I give them credit. I think they did a nice job with a lot of poise and a lot of competitiveness in making sure they won this game today.”

After the ’Hoos finally left the field, the coach gathered with the young women and told them she was proud of them.

“The message was that I love them,” Myers said. “And I couldn’t have asked them to do anything more—not on the field, and not off the field. They’ve been really outstanding. Our first few days we literally took it hour by hour and, eventually, we were able to think as big as two days away. I don’t think I ever thought where we would be three weeks down the road.”

Kaitlin Duff again was a stellar scorer, securing three of the Cavaliers’ goals. Caitlin Whiteley, whose three-goal performance less than a week prior had galvanized the crowd, was scoreless.

“I think we had a great season, and we had a lot of ups and downs, but we really stuck together,” Duff told reporters. “It shows there’s a lot more to the game of lacrosse than winning. We didn’t play our best today, but I think we feel great about the season.”

Reporters asked the inevitable question: What next?

Brittany Kalkstein answered thoughtfully.

“I don’t think that there is any way you can really move on from this,” she said. “Obviously, it’s going to be in our thoughts forever. We will try and stick in town for a few days and be with each other…It’s been a huge learning experience these past few weeks, and I think it taught us about life.”

The women’s season had ended, but the curtain hadn’t fallen on UVA lacrosse entirely. Up next: the men.

 

Coming off the women’s loss in North Carolina, the first-seeded men’s team faced eighth-seeded Stony Brook University. The Seawolves, as the Cavaliers’ counterparts were named, got home field advantage at the 1,000-acre campus on Long Island’s North Shore in New York, about 500 miles north of Charlottesville.

By then, the intense media attention had shifted. The women’s run was over. While news photographers and cameras still lined the field at LaValle Stadium, the outlets were mostly familiar again—ones that normally would have paid attention to an NCAA quarterfinal match.

Shamel Bratton and Chris Bocklet again scored three goals apiece, helping the team eke past the Seawolves with a 10–9 win. While the women’s team had halted, the men headed to another round.

“Watching the scores yesterday, finding out the girls didn’t get the win they wanted, you really want to get to the end for them,” Adam Ghitelman told reporters afterward. “For me personally and for the team, those girls deserve everything. We’re going to play the rest of the season for them; they deserve it.”

Captain Ken Clausen echoed the sentiment.

“With everything that’s been going on, and lacrosse aside, we want to be able to stick together as a team and going out there and playing for the girls and playing for Yeardley,” he said. “That’s been in our minds and it’s been some motivation for us. We’re ready to keep playing hard and stick together for another week.”

The men, like the women, had “been through a lot,” Clausen added.

“Kind of our motto has been that we don’t want this thing to end.”

Six days later, it did end.

The Cavaliers faced fifth-seeded Duke in another away game—this time in front of 44,238 fans at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. The turnout made the game the sixth-largest attended semifinal game in NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament history, according to VirginiaSports.com.

Bocklet again led in team scoring, netting four goals, but the effort fell short. Thanks to Duke’s stellar third quarter, during which they outscored UVA 4–1, the Blue Devils snuck past Virginia with a 14–13 win.

Coach Dom Starsia, wearing a patch that read Y.L. 1. on his shirt, somberly told reporters that the team had played hard and showed courage both on the field and off.

“The final score is probably the least important part of what has transpired here,” he said.

Bocklet wiped away tears as Starsia spoke. Several players couldn’t stomach the season-ending press conference and instead sought solace in the locker room. They were “upset the final result wasn’t what they hoped for.”

“Emotionally, it was hard. Emotionally, I think it’s a lot to handle,” sophomore Steele Stanwick, who tallied three goals and two assists in the game, said. “The season may be over, but we’re still a team. We’re going to stick together through this thing and make sure everyone’s OK.”

Again, George Huguely’s teammates never mentioned his name, which by then had even been deleted from the team’s official 2009–10 roster online.

It was as though he hadn’t existed all season.