COLLEGE PARK, MD. -- Last night, the Virginia women's soccer team fell 2-0 as Maryland pulled out its first ACC win of the season. Having been eliminated from ACC tournament contention Friday afternoon, the Terrapins not only had the home-field advantage but also the knowledge that they could play Virginia as if there were no tomorrow.
"We knew they were going to come out hard tonight," senior Kara Frederick said. "This kind of loss is always tough but we showed that we don't give up even when it seems like everything is going against us."
In the 10th minute of the game, a questionable red-card call gave the Terrapins yet another advantage -- a one-man advantage for the remainder of the game. Cavalier defender Alli Fries was ejected after she fouled Terrapin forward Kelly Rozumalski and ended her fast break. NCAA rules stipulate that a red card must be given if a defender commits a foul from behind in order to prevent an opposing player from going one-on-one with the goalie. While it appeared Fries was shoulder-to-shoulder with Rozumalski when she went for the ball, the side-linesman ruled otherwise.
"It doesn't matter what I think about the call," Virginia coach Swanson said. "We had to deal with the call that was made and I thought that we kept fighting, despite being down a player."
In the 17th minute, Maryland freshman Emily Maynard put the Terrapins on the board for the first time since Sept. 28. Unfortunately for Virginia, the Terrapins' seven-game dry spell ended when Maynard made a nice cut-back play at the 18-yard line and a Maryland shot hit the back of the net for the first time in over 600 minutes of play.
As for the Cavaliers, Maryland's solid defense combined with Virginia's red-card penalty to shut down their offense. At the half, Virginia not only trailed Maryland 1-0 in goals but also 12-9 in shots on goal.
But Virginia did have opportunities to even up the match. In the 37th minute, Nikki Lieb's header off Jen Redmond's corner kick hit the cross bar and was cleared by the Terrapins. Indeed, the cross bar has been unkind to Virginia this weekend -- both of Redmond's free kicks against Boston College Friday night ricocheted off of it, each of which could have prevented the Cavaliers' 1-0 loss.
Last night's second half exemplified soccer's unforgiving nature. Despite a caliber of play that proved why Virginia was favored to win the game, the Cavaliers found themselves two goals down for only the second time this season. Although Virginia maintained possession of the ball in Maryland's half of the field as if they were not a man down, Maryland's only venture into Cavalier territory proved fruitful as Maynard tallied her second goal of the night off a cross from Lauren Gamble. While the 10 Cavalier players on the field fought hard until the end, ultimately they could not overcome the two-goal deficit.
A win last night would have kept the Cavaliers in contention for the No. 3 seed in the ACC tournament. With last night's result, however, Virginia is likely to face either Boston College or Clemson in the first round. In regular season play, the Cavaliers lost 1-0 at home to Boston College and only narrowly defeated Clemson 1-0 in overtime on the road. Nevertheless, Swanson refuses to place too much emphasis on the upset.
"If we compete like we did tonight, we will be fine the rest of the way," Swanson said. "There is still a lot of soccer to be played."
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