All eyes were fixed on Alexis Shaffer. Virginia’s junior midfielder situated the ball on the penalty spot and stepped back. She and Florida State goalkeeper Cassie Miller stared one another down for an instant, their minds finalizing whether to go left, right or middle. All of Klöckner remained in silent angst.
Shaffer then drilled a no-doubter into the right corner, while Miller lunged in the opposite direction.
“I mean that [penalty] was huge,” Shaffer said. “I just went up and took a deep breath and kind of tuned everyone out. When I went up to hit it, she started leaning to the left, so I hit it right.”
Fans leapt to their feet with arms outstretched, signaling every “U,” “V” and “A” to match the pep band’s rowdy song. Virginia teammates embraced Shaffer inside the 18-yard box and went berserk on the sideline. There was reason to celebrate this moment.
At 29:13, the Cavaliers led 1-0 against No. 1 ranked Florida State. Coach Steve Swanson and his team understood the advantage of striking first.
“If you want to look at last year [against Florida State], you can see how important the first goal is,” Swanson said. “We didn’t score a goal in any of them, but they got the first goal. It allows them to do some things different. They can put numbers behind the ball. They can dictate the game a little bit more. For us, it was very important that we get off to a good start.”
Were it not for one referee’s controversial call, Virginia would not have been afforded the opportunity from 12 yards out. Shaffer would not have scored. So the Seminole faithful were furious with the official who deemed junior Kirsten Crowley’s deflection a hand ball worthy of a penalty and straight red card.
The replay revealed Crowley’s hand never made contact with the ball. It was a bad break for Florida State, but the Seminole defense certainly didn’t do enough to clear the interior threat. If anything, the unit was lucky to delay a goal for four more seconds.
Prior to the blown call, a strike from sophomore forward Veronica Latsko smacked off the far post and ended up at the feet of senior forward Makenzy Doniak.
“[Makenzy’s shot] hit one of the defenders and then ricocheted to someone else trying to shoot it in the goal and then ricocheted apparently off her hand,” Shaffer said. “All I could see was the ref running with a red card, and I was like so confused. I was like, ‘hopefully it’s not on me.’”
Virginia benefited from that blown whistle. But the Cavaliers were the team more deserving of a win Sunday. They wanted to make senior day memorable for six of their family members, including a longtime team manager. They embraced a clash with the team that knocked them out of the College Cup Final a season ago.
“I think a huge part of that [game] was obviously the history behind it,” junior goalkeeper Morgan Stearns said. “I think we’re kind of building a little rivalry here between us, which is fun. Obviously, senior day was huge. That means a lot to us. We really believe in being a family and fighting for those girls.”
Four seniors — forwards Makenzy Doniak, Kaili Torres and Brittany Ratcliffe, and defender Julia Sroba — started for Virginia. Senior center back Emily Sonnett remained in Orlando, Florida, with the U.S. Women’s National Team, so her mother received the bouquet holding a large cutout of her face. Sonnett will hopefully rejoin her Virginia teammates this week.
The soon-to-be No. 1 Cavaliers will conclude the 2015 regular season with matches at North Carolina State and Pittsburgh Wednesday and Saturday, respectively. Having tallied its tenth clean sheet of the season versus an archrival on senior day, Virginia is riding the highest of highs right now.
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