Coach Steve Swanson has a favorite line.
“Commitment — it’s the difference between dreaming and doing,” Swanson says.
It has been something he has told his No. 1 Virginia women’s soccer team all season, and halfway through the regular season, it appears that his team has been doing a lot of, well, “doing.”
Virginia, still undefeated at 8-0-1 and 2-0-0 in the ACC, has not trailed for a single second across 810 total minutes of play this season. This is an impressive feat against any level of competition, and the Cavaliers have done it against the class of the nation, including back-to-back victories over top-10 opponents Penn State and Duke.
So what has been the Cavaliers’ recipe for success?
The Cavaliers together do not even have a top-50 scoring offense. Perhaps the unsung hero, then, is junior goalkeeper Victoria Safradin, both in anchoring the defense and initiating offense from her post inside the six-yard box.
Through nine games, Safradin has pitched a shutout in all but two, during which she gave up just one goal apiece. Furthermore, only three other goalkeepers in the country have surrendered two goals or fewer through eight games. While this is an impressive feat for any individual player, Safradin herself argues that her entire defensive unit is the unsung hero.
“My back line has been doing phenomenal with blocking so many shots,” Safradin said. “They are not even having the other team give me shots, because they're just blocking them before they even get to the goal.”
There is truth to this. Virginia’s opponents are averaging 7.9 shots per game, a number that, if the Cavaliers’ opponents were their own team, would rank 320th. Safradin has not been peppered with shots she has to save — but when those eight-ish shots do come, she is quick to protect the goal.
As a whole, this defense returned three of its four starters from last season. A back line that includes graduate defender Laney Rouse and senior Kiki Maki has routinely kept the ball from inching too close to the goal. Continuity is a luxury that certainly cannot be taken for granted, and it has led to outings such as a shutout against then-No. 9 Penn State, in which Safradin saw just one shot on goal.
While the defense has worked hard to keep Safradin’s gloves clean in a handful of her shutouts, Safradin has proven that she is truly elite when the ball does come her way, as she holds the third-highest save percentage in the country at 93.3 percent.
In a statement victory, she saw seven shots on target against then-No. 2 Duke, stopping all but one en route to the Cavaliers’ 3-1 victory. That level of strain is becoming the norm as Safradin and Virginia move into ACC play.
“Every team is going to be a challenge,” Safradin said, “and they're always going to bring it and always going to bring high intensity. So just staying calm back there and being able to play out of any press, or just in general, being able to handle anything, that is something that I need to keep doing.”
Safradin is already showing that she can elevate her play in big games and give Virginia a chance to compete in any game. Last season, she gave up nearly three goals a game against ranked opponents — a recipe not built for success, especially with an offense that has been consistent but not necessarily explosive.
While rocky at times, Safradin’s 2024 campaign gave her the experience to not just protect the net but to be a leader for her team and instill confidence in Virginia’s defense. Her steadiness brings comfort to the defense. Deploying one of the nation's most reliable goalkeepers has particularly helped the lone fresh face of the back line, freshman defender Liv Rademaker, make a seamless transition to the team.
“It definitely helps with my confidence a lot, just understanding my players more,” Safradin said. “I think them knowing that I've been back there and that we've all had a relationship made it easier for [Rademaker] to just come in and just be a part of the team right away.”
Safradin’s leadership is another aspect of her game that may go unnoticed due to its absence on the stat sheet. But whether it be setting up the defense on a corner kick, waving her teammates off a ball that she is charging toward or directing traffic in a crowded box, Safradin is extremely vocal and effective, something that often must come instinctively.
“At the end of the day, I can see the entire field and [the defense] can’t,” Safradin said. “My job as a goalkeeper is to communicate with them and talk to them to make their job easier.”
Safradin has clearly made the defense’s job easier, just as the defense has made hers easier — and while Virginia’s offensive numbers have not yet dropped any jaws, the defense has made it so that the offense has not needed to do so. The Cavaliers have become the nation’s best team without even hitting their ceiling.
Only time will tell if her and the defense’s performance is sustainable, but Safradin shows no signs of slowing down. Virginia’s next three games will come against unranked conference opponents before an away showdown Oct. 12 with No. 2 Stanford. There is also a date with No. 7 Florida State after that, and then, of course, come the ACC and NCAA tournaments in November.
“We’re dreaming and doing,” Safradin said. “We have a goal at the end of the day, and we're going to go and get that goal.”
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