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Unblemished Cavaliers continue road trip

Swanson, squad savor rest, praise N.C. State before setting out to defend top ranking

The No. 1 Virginia women’s soccer team needed a break. Coming off a hard-fought, 3-2 double overtime win against No. 5 Notre Dame and a 2-0 road victory against No. 11 Wake Forest, the Cavaliers welcomed the rest offered by this week’s Reading Days.

“The fall break was good for us in more ways than one; both to get caught up academically and to get a little more rest, which is important to us,” coach Steve Swanson said.

The Cavaliers (14-0-0, 8-0-0 ACC) will face ACC foe NC State in Raleigh on Thursday, which Swanson said could prove more of a challenge than the stat sheet would suggest.

“They’re a difficult opponent for us, especially on the road.” Swanson said. “We played them down there several years ago and they beat us, so we know it’s not an easy venue.”

The Wolfpack (6-9-0, 1-8-0 ACC) currently stand second-to-last in the ACC and have dropped three straight to Virginia. Yet the Cavaliers are preparing for a team they credit with compiling a solid body of work on the field thus far. Four of NC State’s eight conference defeats have come by just one goal, and freshman forward Jackie Stengel’s eight goals evidence her attacking prowess.

“They have been very competitive in the ACC in the games that they’ve played,” Swanson said. “We’re going to get their best shot … We have to be ready to play just like every game in the ACC.”

Thursday night’s matchup marks the second stop in a three-game road trip for Virginia. In its first three-game swing away from Charlottesville, which spanned one week and 689 miles in mid-September, the squad finished 3-0 and solidified its status as a national championship contender. Still, the Cavaliers did not display the same dominance during that stretch as they had in the preceding weeks. After clobbering opponents by an average of 3.57 goals per game in their first seven contests, the Cavaliers had to rally from early deficits in all three games against Boston College, Pittsburgh and Duke on the road trip.

“You’ve got to play well on the road,” Swanson said. “That’s something that we’ve stressed from the beginning. We showed that we can earlier in the year on a tough road trip, so this is a good chance to find out a little bit more about our team.”

Added to the pressures of playing in a hostile environment, Virginia must continue to cope with the pressure wrought by the top national ranking.

“In the past when we’ve played a number one team, you do get a little extra excitement out of it, because how cool would it be to say that you knocked off the number one team,” senior midfielder Kate Norbo said. “So I think that because of that, there definitely is a big target on our back.”

The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN3.

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