No. 1/2 Virginia opened a 6-1 lead after one quarter of play then the No. 18 Lehigh men's lacrosse team responded to give itself a chance into the second half, but could never get over the hump in a 12-8 defeat on Saturday afternoon. The Mountain Hawks got within 6-4 late in the second quarter, but defending national champion UVA scored four of the first five second-half goals to create some separation. Sophomore Tommy Schelling led the offense with four points (three goals, one assist) while senior Ryan Klose netted his first-career hat trick. "It was a tough start for us; UVA jumped all over us in the first quarter," said Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese. "They smothered us in every aspect of the game and it took us a while to catch our breath and settle in. I thought we did a nice job staying in the fight, but we just couldn't get within striking distance down the stretch." Four Mountain Hawks accounted for all eight of Lehigh's goals. Along with Schelling and Klose, freshman Christian Mule' tallied a goal and assist in his first-career start. Senior Crew Cintron scored once as well. Defensively, Lehigh settled in nicely. After allowing six goals in the game's first 13:21, the Mountain Hawks allowed just six over the remaining 46:39 against the Cavaliers' high-powered attack. Junior Matt Douglas led the defense with six groundballs and three caused turnovers. Sophomore Anthony Tangredi added two groundballs and two caused turnovers. Virginia scored first, Klose evened the score at one with 10:22 left in the first quarter, but the Cavaliers answered with a 5-0 run to end the stanza. Lehigh had an answer in the second quarter, as Schelling scored twice in 42 seconds (with 13:23 and 12:41 on the clock) to quickly pull his side within 6-3. Mule' scored his fourth at the 8:44 mark to get the Mountain Hawks within 6-4. UVA answered just over a minute later to make it 7-4 heading into halftime. Neither team scored for more than 18 minutes until the Cavaliers scored twice in the span of 1:27 late in the third quarter. Cintron responded with his first of the season with 50 seconds remaining, to pull within 9-5 heading to the fourth. UVA began the fourth quarter with consecutive goals. Lehigh did have a late run, as Klose scored consecutive goals at 8:09 and 5:06 to pull within 11-7, but four is as close as the Mountain Hawks would come. Schelling wrapped up the scoring at 1:21 for the 12-8 final. Virginia finished with a 48-28 edge in shots and 45-36 advantage in groundballs. Senior Conor Gaffney won 8-of-15 faceoffs with four groundballs, while sophomore Mike Sisselberger was 4-of-8 with two GBs. "We will learn a ton from this one," said Cassese. "Playing the No. 1 team in the country exposes your flaws and helps you realize where you need to improve. Our job as coaches is the evaluate that and make the necessary changes to put our team in a better position to win the next time out." The Mountain Hawks are set for a busy week as they return home to host VMI on Thursday, Feb. 20 at 5 p.m. before traveling to NJIT on Saturday for a 12 p.m. matchup against the Highlanders. Like Lehigh men's lacrosse on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.