The Virginia women's soccer team looks to pick up its second in-state win in the past week when it takes on Richmond tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Klöckner Stadium.
The Cavs, ranked 16th in the nation by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, rebounded from a conference loss at Wake Forest Thursday with an inspired 3-0 victory over James Madison Saturday.
"I think we were all disappointed with the effort on Thursday," Cavalier coach Steve Swanson said. "We could easily have felt sorry for ourselves and come out flat [against JMU], but it was a good response."
Virginia (8-6, 2-3 ACC) hopes to get another solid performance from leading scorer Lori Lindsey, whose goal only 2 minutes, 52 seconds into the game Saturday set the tone for the Cavalier victory. Earlier in the month the junior center midfielder was named a finalist for the Missouri Athletic Club collegiate soccer award, and has scored two more goals since then. Lindsey said she hopes Virginia can pick up a second straight win tonight against the unranked Spiders.
"It's another in-state game and that leads up to our region and where we're positioned in the NCAA Tournament and getting us into the NCAA Tournament," Lindsey said. "We just need to get going from this momentum and go out [tonight] and play hard too. They're going to be tough."
The Richmond offensive attack is led by forward Brooke Sands and midfielder Jenna Merriam, who each have four goals, while goalkeeper Kristen Samuhel has cemented the defense by recording four shutouts. The Spiders (9-5) come into the game on a two-game losing streak after dropping games to Dartmouth and William & Mary. But the Cavaliers maintain they are not looking past their non-conference opponents.
"We set a goal at the beginning of the year to be the best team in Virginia," Swanson said. "This is a big game for us; they were ranked [last week]. The fact that it's an in-state rivalry game is going to be important for us."
The Cavs were bitterly disappointed when Wake scored with less than four minutes remaining to grab a 2-1 win Thursday night. But almost a week later, their collective psyche has had time to heal.
"I was more concerned about our mental side [after that loss] than anything," Swanson said. "We had a lackluster performance on Thursday, but you have to be careful not to push the panic button and think that everything is going wrong. I think we acknowledged that it wasn't a great effort, we paid the price for it and we learned something from it"
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