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Women’s soccer outlasts Miami, wins ACC opener

No. 2 Cavaliers fend off aggressive Hurricanes, stay perfect through nine games

<p>Junior forward Makenzy Doniak scored her sixth goal of the season and tallied an assist in No. 2 Virginia's 3-1 win against Miami. Following her goal, Doniak moved into a tie for fourth on Virginia's all-time scoring list.</p>

Junior forward Makenzy Doniak scored her sixth goal of the season and tallied an assist in No. 2 Virginia's 3-1 win against Miami. Following her goal, Doniak moved into a tie for fourth on Virginia's all-time scoring list.

The No. 2 Virginia women’s soccer team opened ACC play Saturday night against a reeling Miami team desperate for its first conference road win since 2012. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, were looking to extend a program record 24-game home winning streak and notch their 39th straight win against a non-ranked opponent.

Virginia (9-0, 1-0 ACC) came out strong against an extremely physical Hurricanes squad (2-7, 0-1 ACC), who looked desperate for a break to swing momentum in their favor — an aggressiveness which resulted in a second-minute yellow card issued to junior forward Ava Ambrose. Though Miami’s physicality continued throughout the ACC opener, Virginia would ultimately prevail, defeating the Hurricanes, 3-1.

“It fired us up a little — it’s obviously frustrating,” freshman midfielder Olivia Hazelrigg said. “We like a challenge, so it’s okay.”

Virginia dominated play early and consistently moved the ball into the box, but failed to convert its many chances, scoring three goals on 20 shots.

In the 17th minute, however, the Cavaliers exploited Miami’s over-aggressiveness and maximized their own creativity. Junior Kaili Torres, junior forward Makenzy Doniak and sophomore defender Kristen McNabb combined for a spectacular goal involving a pair of lob passes over two defenders and the goalie, setting up McNabb to finish her second career goal.

“You’ve got to take your wins at home,” coach Steve Swanson said. “There’s a lot of things we did better in this game, so [we’re] taking the positive out of that. I think our finishing can be better. That’s something we can improve on. I thought we did a good job creating [chances], but we didn’t break the game open.”

Though the Cavaliers outshot Miami 10-3 in the first half, the Hurricanes appeared poised to head into halftime down just one goal. But with just 12 seconds left in the half, freshman defender Megan Reid found Hazelrigg at the top of the 18. Hazelrigg collected the ball and fired a rocket into the side netting for her first career goal.

“It was kind of a relief,” Hazelrigg said. “You want to make a good impression from the start and in that first conference game, it’s a good feeling.”

The goal doubled the Cavalier lead to two, capturing all momentum as the teams entered their respective locker rooms at halftime.

“That was huge,” Doniak said. “Going in with a 2-0 lead is pretty big because you have a little more of a cushion. It was Liv’s first goal, so it gave us more confidence going into the second half.”

Though Miami is a particularly physical team, it has generally played smart as well — committing just 52 fouls so far this season, for an average of 6.50 per game. After 45 minutes Saturday night, the Hurricanes had tallied six fouls, inciting groans and calls for cards from the 2,231 fans at Klöckner Stadium. They were, it seemed, in rare form as they took on the second-ranked Cavaliers.

“It’s the first game of the [ACC] season, so everyone wants to get out on the right foot,” Hazelrigg said. “Our team moves the ball quickly, so I think a lot of teams are going to try to beat us physically. This team’s just really good on the ball so I think we can get around it.”

The Hurricanes countered 15 minutes into the second half, when senior defender Maddie Simms found junior forward Natalie Moik, who converted for her first goal of the season and cut the Cavalier lead in half.

“We let a team back into the game when I thought we had the game,” Swanson said. “We’ve got to do a better job of handling those situations and finishing our chances.”

But as they have time and time again this season, Doniak and senior midfielder Danielle Colaprico combined for a goal, working a technically stunning one-two which resulted in a Colaprico cross and a confident Doniak finish. The goal, Doniak’s sixth of the season, pushes her into a tie for fourth on Virginia’s all-time scoring list — and after only three years.

“Those guys have played a while together so I think all of them have a good understanding,” Swanson said. “We had some great linking play today and that was really nice. We got to some good places with our ball movement.”

The Hurricanes’ physical presence only grew more intense as the night wore on. In the second half, Miami players were issued two more yellow cards, and their aggressive play warranted 12 more foul calls.

“It was quite a physical game, but the key for us was to not let them shift our play,” Doniak said. “Staying composed on the ball is the most important thing.”

In contrast to Miami’s physicality, Virginia’s calculated, cerebral play led to 20 shots throughout the game. Doniak said she believes the team’s consistently high energy was the key to its fifth-straight conference-opening win.

“I feel like we picked it up toward the end,” Doniak said. “I don’t think we ever had a shift in our energy, so it looked like they slowed down toward the end.”

Virginia has a few days off before its next matchup — a Thursday night home game against Wake Forest. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

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