Yeardley Love Remembered for Uncommon Talent, Kindness

Hundreds attend funeral for slain lacrosse player

At her funeral Saturday morning, friends, family and former teammates remembered slain University of Virginia lacrosse player Yeardley Love as an angel and a woman of uncommon talent and kindness.

Mass for Love was held at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore, a few miles from Notre Dame Preparatory School, were Love had excelled as a lacrosse player. A private burial followed.

"She was just very kind and sweet," family friend Leigh Erlandsen told News4's Julie Carey Friday. "We need more Yeardleys in the world. If there were more Yeardleys, the world would be at peace."

Hundreds attended the closed funeral, celebrating Love with song and tears. Members of the Virginia women's lacrosse team were in attendance, along with several Notre Dame Prep students dressed in the school uniform.
 

Mary Bartel, Love's coach at Notre Dame Prep, led the call to worship. Julie Myers, head coach of the Virginia women's lacrosse team, addressed the gathering before the family reflected on Love's life.

The cover of the funeral service program featured a picture of Love dressed as an angel as a child above her 2006 yearbook quote: "Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget." An essay written by Love when she was a freshman at Notre Dame Prep was printed inside the back cover. The final line of the piece read, "So far my life has been filled with joy and happiness, and I hope to keep living my life that way."

Love was found beaten to death in her off-campus apartment Monday. George Huguely, a player for the UVA men's lacrosse team, is being held on first-degree murder charges in the case.

Love's mother and sister received mourners at two viewings Friday. Her father died of cancer a few years ago.

"It's a tragic, tragic loss," Erlandsen said. "No mother should ever have to go through this."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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