The No. 8 Virginia field hockey team battled No. 10 Ohio State to a closely contested 2-1 victory yesterday at home.
"It was a good win for us," Virginia senior co-captain Carrie Goodloe said. "Ohio State is a top team and you have to beat the top teams if you want to go to the ACC tournament."
The Cavaliers' win came after a slow start where Virginia (8-3) had trouble establishing its normally aggressive game. Ohio State (9-2) dominated early play by continually driving the ball forward into Virginia's defensive end and racking up nine offensive corners in the first half. But the Buckeyes failed to convert for goals, thanks to the strength of the Cavalier defense. Virginia goalkeeper Emily White made eight saves to help preserve the win.
Virginia stepped up play in the middle of the first half when a fast break by junior Katie Slocum and senior co-captain Jessica Coleman finally jumpstarted its offense. With eight minutes left in the half, the Cavaliers got on the board when junior Cara Unterkofler successfully followed up on a corner. She controlled a loose ball and zinged it past Ohio State goalkeeper Allison Blanton to give Virginia a 1-0 lead.
"We wanted to try to play our own game and keep possession," Virginia coach Jessica Wilk said. "They had several key attacking threats that we wanted to shut down and I feel that we accomplished that. We started to step it up and fought a little harder in the beginning of the second half, which was great but we still need a consistent 70 minutes."
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The Cavaliers were able to maintain their aggressive play into the second half to dominate play. Buckeye fouls gave Virginia two penalty strokes in the second half. Just three minutes into the second half, Coleman took a penalty stroke after Unterkofler's shot hit a post player's body. Blanton stopped Coleman's attempt and Virginia remained ahead by one.
Unterkofler forced the next stroke with 29 minutes left in the game. Senior co-captain Carrie Goodloe pushed the penalty stroke past Blanton and into the left corner for the score. Goodloe's goal put Virginia ahead, 2-0, and proved to be the game-winner.
Buckeye freshman Lorena Margni scored at 14:12 off of an assist by sophomore Vanessa Immordino to narrow Virginia's lead to one.
"It got a little bit sloppy toward the end and a little frantic," Goodloe said. "But we kept fighting, we pushed through the majority of the game and got a lot of good corners."
The Cavaliers have won their last two games against the Buckeyes in the 1998 and 2000 ACC-Big Ten challenge in St. Louis.
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