Gone, but still a part of the team.

Come together...

On Sunday, Sharon Love sat in the stands wearing a blue-and-orange ribbon with angel’s wings, as Virginia took a 14-12 victory in its first game since Yeardley Love was found dead in her apartment May 3.

George Huguely, who was a senior on Virginia’s men’s lacrosse team and who had dated Yeardley Love, has been charged with first-degree murder.

Just before the game ended, Sharon Love and her older daughter, Lexie, were escorted to the field. One by one, the Cavaliers ran up and embraced them.

“It was really great to see Mrs. Love and Lexie, because I see Yeardley in them, in their laugh,” Marye Kellermann, a senior attack for Virginia, said.
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The Virginia players wore warm-up T-shirts that said: “One Team. One Heart. One Love.” They also wore black patches on their jerseys that had the word “LOVE” displayed in white. And the Towson players wore wristbands with Love’s initials on them.

“Going out on the field and feeling a sense of emptiness knowing Yeardley’s not there, that’s definitely been the hardest thing the past couple of weeks,” Kellermann said.

Less than three minutes into the first half, Virginia led by 3-0, and Klockner Stadium had begun to shake. Towson tied the score five times, but Virginia never trailed, never wavered and never lost track of the afternoon’s focus.

When Kaitlin Duff found Charlie Finnigan for the final goal with 1 minute 58 seconds remaining, it did not heal everything or make everything feel as it once did. But it did give the Cavaliers, Sharon and Lexie Love, and plenty of others here a chance to exhale.

Caity Whiteley, who was one of Love’s roommates, was one of three Virginia players who scored three goals.

“I know I wasn’t ready to be done,” Virginia Coach Julie Myers said. “I don’t think the girls were even close to being ready. We still need to be together as we take the next steps.”

Sixth-seeded Virginia (14-5) will face third-seeded North Carolina (16-2) in a quarterfinal match next week in Chapel Hill.
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After the women’s game, the Virginia players held up pieces of paper with Love’s No. 1 on them as the Cher song “Believe” boomed over the loudspeaker. The song became something of a team anthem after the Cavaliers’ bus driver played it during trips to Virginia Tech and Maryland last month.

Lauren Benner, a junior goalie, said Love and the rest of the team danced and sang along during those bus rides, but on Sunday, the paradox of the song’s chorus — “Do you believe in life after love?”— was not lost.

“I mean, love is everywhere,” Benner said.