In its first home game of the season, Virginia field hockey handed previously unbeaten Richmond (5-1) a 2-0 loss yesterday night at University Hall Turf Field. No. 12 Virginia (4-1) looked aggressive behind the offense of senior co-captain Mason White and sophomore Kiersten Van Hooser, both of whom notched goals for the Cavaliers.
Van Hooser, in her first appearance of the season, opened the scoring for the Cavaliers with 5 minutes, 30 seconds left in the first half.
"It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing," Van Hooser said. "I wasn't sure if it was going to go or not but the ball just popped up and I touched it and it went in."
"I'm excited for" Van Hooser, Virginia coach Jessica Wilk said. "She's worked hard all season and when she got in, she made it count."
Virginia put intense pressure on the Richmond defense when the second half began by keeping the ball in Spider territory for nearly six minutes. Richmond then failed to convert on three penalty corners and seemed to have a hard time striking a solid shot on goal.
With 16:30 left in the game, White capitalized on a penalty corner and gave Virginia the 2-0 lead that they would not relinquish. Cavalier offense continued to smother Richmond and forced them to call a timeout to regroup with 13:30 left to play. The Spiders played solid defense in the final minutes by blocking a Virginia drive to the goal and a penalty corner effort, but never seriously threatened to score. Richmond forced seven penalty corners throughout the game but was unable to put the ball in the goal.
Virginia goalie Emily White continued to dominate and earned her second shutout of the season.
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Wilk was pleased with the team's improvement throughout the game but stressed that a few things needed to be cleaned up before the Cavaliers host 2000 NCAA champion No. 2 Old Dominion (4-2) on Sunday.
"The intensity level was high all game and we did a better job making adjustments from the first half to the second half," Wilk said. "We did a better job breaking the press. It was a good start - Richmond is a very good team - but there are some things we need to work out before Sunday. We need a more disciplined defense. We need to take care of the ball for 70 minutes."
Senior co-captain Jessie Coleman, who currently leads the nation with seven goals, echoed Wilk's sentiments about the team's progress.
"We really came together as a team in the second half and improved our play so that was a good sign," Coleman said. "It was good for us to play a team of this caliber - they're very physical. We came out really hard. We're psyched to play ODU."
Van Hooser believes that Virginia made huge strides with yesterday night's win, especially with ODU looming in the horizon.
"Today was a great step for us toward Sunday," Van Hooser said. "Sunday's a big game"
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