After suffering its worst loss all season and its first home loss in two seasons in a 5-1 defeat to North Carolina Friday, the Virginia women’s soccer team will get a chance to rebound at Klöckner Stadium tomorrow when it plays Duke.
Only two more chances remain for the Cavaliers to right the ship before the ACC Tournament begins, and the Cavaliers know more than pride is at stake.
“We need to win these next two games to be here in the [NCAA Tournament],” senior defender Nikki Krzysik said. “We’ll get another shot at [North Carolina] in the [ACC Tournament].”
The Cavaliers (12-3-1, 6-2-0 ACC) will take many lessons from the game against the Tar Heels; one is to work on playing from behind. Virginia managed to play solid defense and keep the game level at 0-0 for the first 50 minutes of the North Carolina game. When the Tar Heels scored in the 51st minute, however, the Cavaliers faced only their third second-half deficit this season.
“We were trying some things,” Virginia coach Steve Swanson said. “We were in a position we haven’t been in a lot. We were in a situation that we need to work on just a little bit more.”
Virginia attempted to recover the one-goal margin by moving one of its four defenders forward to increase offensive pressure. Either because the plan backfired or simply because of poor execution, North Carolina quickly scored four more goals to the Cavaliers’ one. Though Virginia faltered and fell behind, Swanson saw it as a learning experience for himself as well as for the players.
“It gives us a little more insight into our team, more little things we can take away for down the road,” Swanson said. “I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing at this point in time.”
With two conference games remaining before the ACC Tournament, it will become important for Virginia to figure out how to play from behind. One of the teams that has the ability to pose this situation for Virginia is No. 11 Duke. Like any conference opponent, Duke will bring few surprises.
“If I never saw UNC play all year, I would know exactly what they were going to do,” Swanson said. “I think good teams are very easy to scout. You know what’s coming down the mountain; it’s nothing different than we expected.”
The Blue Devils’ 12-3-2 overall record and 4-2-2 conference record indicates Virginia’s next opponent is a worthy one. Duke could be even stronger than its record indicates because of the strength of its schedule. Thus far Duke’s only losses have come to No. 6 Florida State, No. 2 North Carolina and No. 1 Notre Dame.
One of the Blue Devils’ strengths is a strong defense. Duke is at the top of the ACC in shutouts (5), while allowing just 0.94 goals per game.
As evidenced by Virginia’s performance in its most recent 5-1 loss to North Carolina, taking an early lead would seem to bode well for a Cavalier victory. By relying on the goal-scoring power of Meghan Lenczyk and the assist prowess of Lauren Alwine — who fittingly connected on Virginia’s only goal against North Carolina — Virginia will try to finish out the rest of its regular season strong.
“This is a home stretch,” Krzysik said. “We need to learn from our mistakes, think about it [for a few days] and then forget about [North Carolina], because we have Duke as our next game.”
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