Fresh off a thrilling 2-1 road win against No. 14 Notre Dame Sunday, the fourth-ranked Virginia women’s soccer team returns home Thursday looking to extend its school-record 26-game home winning streak.
The Cavaliers (11-1-0, 3-1-0 ACC) take on a struggling Boston College (8-5-0, 1-3-0 ACC) team which has dropped three of its last four games coming into Charlottesville. But as is the case in any matchup against an ACC squad, the Cavaliers can’t let their guard down based on win-loss record.
“The focus first and foremost is BC,” associate coach Ron Raab said, “BC is a quality side, they’ve got a couple players who are special and I think they’re going to be a formidable challenge for us so the focus is preparing for that game and then doing the things necessary to prepare.”
Historically, the game site has loosely determined the outcome of Virginia-Boston College games. Though Virginia has consistently been the stronger team, the Eagles have taken four of the last eight matchups, including three wins in Newton, Massachusetts, on their own field. With Thursday’s matchup at home — the first game at Klöckner Stadium in two weeks — the Cavaliers’ chances of taking down a pesky Boston College team look good.
“Going on the road and seeing the difference in just sheer amount of people that are out at our games compared to other team’s games, I think we just appreciate it so much more now," sophomore goalkeeper Morgan Stearns said. "[We’re] excited to come home to that and play in front of the home crowds.”
Stearns and the Cavaliers’ defense have thrived at Klöckner, and their play has consistently improved throughout the season. Now ranked second in the ACC in goals against average with just .50 goals per game, the back line has made a point this season of keeping its goal a hallowed place, expecting to shutout everyone they play.
“The biggest thing is our will to not give up goals,” Stearns said, “We definitely pride ourselves on being one of the strongest back lines in the country and knowing that giving up goals is going to happen eventually but … it’s very bothersome if it does.”
Though the defense has seen much success this season, it has taken much of the season thu far to develop a degree of cohesiveness and chemistry — no easy task considering Virginia added nine new players this season and lost nearly half of its College Cup starting lineup from last season.
“The biggest thing that’s changed over the course of the year is the integration of the new players,” Raab said. “[We're developing] a little more of the comfort level of all of our players in terms of getting used to each other, their strengths, their weaknesses, incorporating our style of play throughout the team, and that’s a process, it doesn’t happen overnight. I think we’re starting to see some of the results of their hard work.”
Virginia’s improvement has been led by its upperclassmen leaders, especially junior forward Brittany Ratcliffe, whose memorable 90it minute tap-in against Notre Dame gave the Cavaliers their eleventh win.
“It happened so slowly,” Ratcliffe said, “I passed it into the net and it was the slowest goal of my life. It was awesome because we definitely deserved to win that game, so getting the win and traveling on the road after being on a long trip, we definitely needed it.”
Though the ACC Player of the Week, Ratcliffe, and Virginia took down Notre Dame last weekend, it was only the first win this season against a ranked opponent, after losing to fifth-ranked Florida State Sept. 28.
“Notre Dame is a quality team and a quality result is always something that gives players a little bit of confidence,” Raab said, “I think we had a solid performance for 90 minutes [and] that’ll give them a little bit of confidence in their ability to play against good teams, and going forward I think we’ll see a continuation of that.”
With this Thursday's matchup, the Cavaliers now begin the final-season push toward the NCAA tournament — playing against an Eagles squad which lost junior forward and preseason Hermann Trophy watch list member McKenzie Meehan to a preseason off-field injury.
“The motivation is to get to Florida, to the final four, keep doing what we need to do, keep playing Virginia soccer,” Ratcliffe said. "At the end of the day we want to be playing in December, so that’s what we’ve got to be focused on.”
Kickoff for the first game of Virginia’s two-game homestand is at 7 p.m. in Klöckner Stadium.
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