The women's lacrosse team could not complete a late rally from an early deficit, falling on the road to Virginia Tech on Saturday 14-11.
The loss was the fourth straight for the Eagles, whose season record now stands at 5-8 overall and 3-0 in Patriot League play.
AU fell behind less than three minutes into the game as Virginia Tech's Liz Carpenter scored an early goal. It was 2-0 in favor of the home team before the Eagles were able to get on the board. Senior attacker Lauren Aksionoff scored the first of her team-high four goals at the 22:59 mark of the first half to cut the deficit in half at 2-1. Jackie Lane's second-half goal moved her into third place on the all-time AU scoring list.
However, this was as close as the Eagles would get for the remainder of the match.
The Hokies came out in front at 5-1 midway through the opening period after a quick 3-0 scoring run. The Eagles found themselves down by three at the break 6-3 after trading goals over the final 10 minutes of play.
Although the Eagles scored two of the last three goals of the first half, it was the Hokies who had the momentum going into the second half.
Another quick 5-1 scoring run by Virginia Tech pushed the lead to 11-4 midway through second-half play.
The Eagles attempted to rally late in the second half. Sophomore attacker Lisa Schaaf scored at the 13-minute mark and cut the lead to 11-5. After one Virginia Tech goal, Aksionoff and senior attacker Jackie Lane connected on back-to-back goals three minutes later to cut the lead down to 12-7.
However, the deficit was too large for the Eagles to overcome with only 10 minutes remaining in the match.
Aksionoff scored two more times during the final four minutes to cut the lead down to 14-11, but time expired before the Eagles could complete the comeback.
AU continues its road trip when it takes on the University of Richmond Wednesday afternoon before traveling north to take on Patriot League rival Holy Cross on Sunday.
