While most other students were in class Tuesday afternoon, the No. 9 Virginia field hockey team was on the field facing Miami (Ohio) in its second home game of the season. Coming off a 6-4 win against then-No. 7 Princeton Sunday, the Cavaliers (3-2, 0-0 ACC) posted their second shutout of the season and downed the RedHawks (0-5, 0-0 MAC) 3-0.
“We had a hard game on Sunday, and we were trying to grow from it,” sophomore midfielder Lucy Hyams said. “We played a good 70 minutes throughout and didn’t give up any goals. It was a strong team performance all around.”
Senior midfielder Jess Orrett was the first to find the back of the net, scoring at 16:36 off a corner from freshman forward Emilie van Zinnicq Bergmann. The goal was the first of the season for Orrett, who only recorded a single score in each of the 2012 and 2013 seasons.
The Cavaliers kept up the pressure throughout the first half, outshooting the RedHawks 11-2. Though no other shots found their mark before the break, Virginia was content with its 1-0 lead, knowing it had the visiting side back on their heels.
“They really played in control,” coach Michele Madison said of her team. “They were able to play against a totally different kind of defense that Miami presented — they played a half-field possession and we were able to establish a good passing game so that we could resume our attacking style of play.”
After six Virginia shots in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, sophomore striker Riley Tata scored at 46:19 — her team-leading fifth goal of the season — on an assist from Orrett to put the Cavaliers ahead 2-0.
Hyams notched another goal on Virginia’s next shot seven and a half minutes later, giving her team a 3-0 lead that would stand at the end of the game. The Cavaliers held the final edge in shots by a 19-5 margin against Miami, and senior goalkeeper Jenny Johnstone improved to 2-1 on the season and 37-24 in her career.
Virginia is in the midst of four home games in the span of eight days, a taxing schedule which forces players to rush to prepare for each new opponent while preserving their energy and keeping up with classes.
“We have shorter practices so that we don’t get too tired and have a couple days off,” Orrett said. “We just have to work really hard with the time that we have and from the moment we step on the field be really together as a team, which we are.”
Up next for the Cavaliers is a meeting with new conference rival No. 11 Louisville. The Cardinals (4-0, 0-0 ACC) stand undefeated on the season so far, coming off a close 1-0 win on the road against No. 13 Northwestern Sunday. With a 15-5 season in 2013, Louisville makes a strong addition to an already loaded ACC, with all seven members ranked in the top-15 nationally, including four in the top five.
“We’ve just got to come back out on the pitch on Thursday and train really hard to make sure we’re ready for the Louisville game,” Hyams said. “It’s our ACC opener, so we’ve got to pick the intensity up in the training and keep running, keep playing like we would in a game and just go from there.”
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