The NCAA Tournament run by the No. 2 seed Virginia women’s soccer team ended this weekend with a loss in the third round at home to Duke, 3-1. The Cavaliers beat Rutgers 6-1 Friday evening before falling to their ACC rival Sunday.
Virginia (13-5-2, 6-3-1 ACC) came out of the locker room looking strong Friday, but it was Rutgers (13-8-1, 5-5-1, Big East) that struck first, scoring in the eighth minute when redshirt junior forward Jonelle Filigno tapped in a shot to make it 1-0. Early deficits have been few and far between for the Cavaliers, but the team responded effectively.
“Against a lot of competition, they just would have packed it in and tried to keep the 1-0 lead,” senior forward Caroline Miller said. “It was important for us to keep playing the way we’ve been playing. So we just kept taking the ball in, kept crossing it and good things came from there.”
Virginia was able to even the score just five minutes later, as freshman forward Makenzy Doniak took a through ball from Miller and beat the keeper to make it 1-1. From then on, Virginia asserted its superiority against an overmatched Rutgers team. In the 20th minute, sophomore forward Danielle Colaprico stole the ball outside of Rutgers’ box and slotted home a shot. Just more than a minute later, Miller tapped in a cross from Colaprico to give the team a 3-1 halftime lead.
As lopsided as the first half was, the second half was even worse for Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights could not manage a single shot on goal against a tough Virginia defense in the half. In the 63rd minute, Miller added her second goal of the game, giving her the single-season school record for goals. The Cavaliers added two more late goals form sophomore forward Kaili Torres and junior midfielder Kate Norbo to take the 6-1 victory.
“I thought we moved the ball quite well,” coach Steve Swanson said. “Our attack was the difference, and it took the pressure off our defenders. We’ve been working on some things shape-wise, and we did a good job in our midfield of putting better pressure on the ball, and that took some pressure off of our back line.”
Sunday’s matchup against Duke (14-4-2, 5-3-2 ACC) proved to be a bigger challenge for Virginia, as the squad struggled to get its offense going against a very physical Blue Devil team. Duke got on the board first with a goal from redshirt junior forward Kim DeCesare in the ninth minute and controlled most of the action in the first half.
“We didn’t compete very hard in the first half,” Swanson said. “They competed harder than us. They were putting balls in our box, and we didn’t cope with that as well as we could have.”
The Blue Devils found another goal in the 38th minute to take a 2-0 halftime lead and held a 9-3 shooting advantage against Virginia at the break. Coming out of halftime, the Cavalier offense picked up the pace. Miller scored in the 51st minute to bring the score to 2-1.
“We had 45 minutes,” Swanson said. “We’ve scored more than 2 goals [in 45 minutes] quite a bit. I didn’t think it was outside the realm to get back in it, and we did.”
After the goal, though, Duke switched most of its efforts to the defensive end, rarely venturing past midfield for the majority of the half. The Blue Devils thwarted all of Virginia’s attempts to tie the game, forcing the Cavaliers to get desperate. Virginia surrendered a goal on a counter attack in the 89th minute to seal the 3-1 loss.
“It was a tough game, a really good team, and I have a lot of respect for their coaching staff and their team,” Swanson said. “We’re obviously disappointed in the loss, but if it had to be somebody, at least it’s an ACC team and a team we respect a lot. The better team won today.”
The loss ended what was a brilliant season for the Cavaliers, who saw multiple team records fall. In addition to her goals record, Miller also broke the single-season points record for the club. Her eight straight games with a goal set another new mark. Virginia’s 18 wins was a new high, but the team could not improve upon last year’s run to the quarterfinals.
“I don’t think this game should define this team,” Swanson said. “To go on the run we had leading up to this game was amazing. This team will go down in history as one of the better teams that Virginia soccer has ever produced.”
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