“I think our effort was there tonight,” senior midfielder/defender Nikki Krzysik said. “You are always going to have one of those games where your touch is off. It’s unfortunate that tonight ... we were on that side.”
Krysik and the Virginia women’s soccer team ended their 2008 season last night with a 2-0 lost to Duke in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
“It was obviously a disappointing loss for us,” Virginia coach Steve Swanson said. “I feel bad for our kids — I thought they put in a hell of an effort. Unfortunately things just didn’t go our way today.”
The match took place on the Cavaliers’ home turf, Klöckner Stadium — an advantage Virginia earned by virtue of being the higher seed. The game was a rematch of a regular-season contest that ended in a 0-0 draw and in which the Cavaliers outshot the Blue Devils 22-6. Last night Virginia earned another a significant shooting advantage, outshooting Duke 15-4, but could not capitalize on it.
“Obviously U.Va. is a great program,” Duke coach Robbie Church said. “[Swanson] does a fantastic job year in and year out. Defensively you can look at shot count and it’s very deceiving. Quality shots is what we are looking at. We know against a team like Virginia we aren’t going to get a ton of shots. But we have to be ready.”
This contest marks the fourth time the Blue Devils have eliminated the Cavaliers from the NCAA Tournament.
“Statistics aside, we did a lot of good things,” Swanson said. “At the end of the day, that first goal was against the run of play. The second goal was a little half chance she buried. Just disappointing to go out the way we did — on our home field — it stings a little bit.”
The first goal came from junior forward KayAnne Gummersall in the 17th minute of play, forcing Virginia to play from behind for the rest of regulation.
“The first goal was just huge — that changed the complexion,” Church said. “I thought we were chasing the game a bit early. I thought Virginia was really sharp early. And then we got them on a counter ... I thought that changed the whole momentum of the game.”
Duke now advances to the round of eight to face UCLA. The end of Virginia’s season means the end of many seniors’ collegiate athletic careers.
Along with Krzysik, the Cavaliers bid farewell to midfielder/forward Kelly Quinn, goalie Celeste Miles, defender Sarah Senty, midfielder Jen Redmond, midfielder/defender Alli Fries and defender Alex Singer.
Virginia looks forward to the 2009 season and the return of sophomore goalie Chantel Jones, who redshirted this year to play for the under-20 national team. The Cavaliers also look to see improvement from returning forwards sophomore Meghan Lencysk, the team’s leading goal scorer, and freshman Lauren Alwine, who led the team in assists.
“I think in preseason we set goals and we didn’t accomplish those goals this season,” Krzysik said. “But that doesn’t take away from the fact that we came together, we incorporated our new first years, we stood by each other. You can’t take that away from us; you can’t take away the unity we brought to this team.”
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