Just as the rain fell at Klöckner Stadium Friday night as the second half got underway, so fell the hopes of Cavalier fans and the athletes for whom they cheered.
After a scoreless first half, the then-No. 2 North Carolina women’s soccer team ran away with the game after scoring an opening goal in the 51st minute and following it with four more unanswered goals between the 73rd and 80th minutes. The Tar Heels (15-1-1, 8-0 ACC) eventually won the contest 5-1, dashing the hopes of an upset from the then-No. 8 Cavaliers.
“It’s disappointing that the result is what it is,” Virginia coach Steve Swanson said. “I think we did a lot of good things tonight. There’s a lot of things I feel that we can build on. That’s what we’re going to choose to look at. I don’t think the result was indicative of the performance.”
The “good things” Virginia (12-3-1, 6-2 ACC) did Friday night came in the form of 50 shutout minutes spanning the entire first half and into the beginning of the second.
Solid defense on both halves of the field held the two teams to only three total shots and the same number of corners in the first period of regulation.
“We don’t trap; we just try to drop on service,” North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance said. “We just a play a semi-flat back 1-3-4-3. With three backs there’s so much space over the top we have to figure out a way to protect that space, so that’s the way we try to protect it.”
The Tar Heels’ back line managed to protect that space and had the Cavaliers figured out most of the game — holding them to a game-total four shots while allowing only one goal, when sophomore forward Meghan Lenczyk scored off freshman forward Lauren Alwine’s assist late in the second period when the game was all but finished.
Likewise, Virginia held fast against the high-powered North Carolina offense in the first half. The defense Dorrance called “superb,” however, let one get by them early on the second half.
“To be fair, we gambled a little bit,” Swanson said. “When we went down one to nothing we went to a three-back [line].”
The switch moved one of the Cavalier defenders forward to apply more offensive pressure while keeping only three defenders on the back line.
“We were down, so why not?” Virginia senior defender Nikki Krzysik said. “We had nothing to lose. We were kind of trying to push forward and trying to get those goals back.”
Used to playing a four-back line, Virginia’s gamble let the already strong offensive North Carolina threat loose.
“It’s going to be different when you play against every forward as an athlete or every midfielder running through,” Krzysik said.
It seemed as though Virginia was a tale of two teams Friday. In the first half the Cavaliers played their game — strong, defensively minded, controlled soccer — and kept the game level. In the second half, as things came apart, Virginia was forced to become more aggressive and, in turn, lost control of the game.
“We have to be a little sharper, a little more focused, a little better about what we do so we can play two good halves,” Swanson said.
North Carolina, likewise, played a solid first half defensively but then really found their stride in the second half as four Tar Heels found the back of the net on five goals.
“Every now and again a team will finish well,” Dorrance said. “We finished well today. I think we scored on half of our shots — that’s a miracle.”
With the first home loss of the season coming against its toughest and highest-ranked opponent, Virginia will look to try to bounce back and maintain focus for its last two home games before the ACC Tournament.
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