The day was clear and sunny for the women's soccer game at Klöckner field, but West Virginia's defense was like a cloud of fog the Cavaliers just couldn't work through. Time after time, shots were always a second too late, passes missed the foot they were aimed for and were handed to the opposition or the ball rolled over the white lines to fall out of play.
It was a sequence of potential goals missed by just one second that replayed itself over and over again all through the first and second halves. By the close of the first half, West Virginia barely had seen the Cavalier's half of the field, and Virginia still only had four shots and only one on goal.
"We didn't move the ball as well as we can," Virginia coach Steve Swanson said. "We had chances to get better shots than we got, and we settled for shots that were more difficult for us."
Finally though, with just 14 minutes left in the second half, Virginia broke through the mist, and a pass from midfielder Shanon Folley went straight to Kelly Hammond -- who promptly sent it into the right hand corner of the net, giving Virginia the 1-0 lead.
This is the fourth year in a row Virginia has beaten the Mountaineers with a score of 1-0. This year though, the Cavaliers are a much younger, much newer team.
"We're still coming together as a team," Folley said. "For us to come out here and just to break down other teams' defenses in our second game of the season is kind of unrealistic."
Still, it was clear to anyone who was watching that the potential and coordination were there, it was just the final second of timing and communication that wasn't coming through. The Cavaliers' momentum also may have been interrupted by the long injury break that occurred with 10 minutes remaining in the first half. A member of the West Virginia suffered an injury and was taken off the field in an ambulance
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