Through 15 games this season, Virginia field hockey has been a defensive powerhouse, but when it met Stanford for an ACC Tournament matchup Tuesday afternoon in Louisville, Ky., it was the offense that took center stage. The Cavaliers (15-1, 7-1 ACC) defeated the Cardinal (7-10, 2-6 ACC) 4-3 behind incredible performance from junior forward Emma Watchilla and several true freshmen.
Virginia came into this match as the clear favorite and drew two penalty corners early, but it was Stanford’s freshman forward Summer Knight-Thompson that opened the scoring just six minutes into the game. Following Knight-Thompson’s goal, the Cardinal continued to put pressure on the Cavaliers defense, drawing a pair of corners but failing to convert on both.
The score remained 1-0 until Watchilla drew a corner with 12 minutes to go in the half. This proved to be the catalyst for Virginia as a trio of highly recruited freshmen capitalized on the ensuing play — a clean insert from midfielder Mary Adams and a shot angled wide of the net by back Lauren Sloane allowed midfielder Bella Moore to even the game at one on a beautiful deflection goal.
The Cavaliers did not stop there as Watchilla hammered a goal of her own home under two minutes later off of a fantastic cross from graduate midfielder Suze Leemans giving Virginia their first lead of the game. Watchilla was not finished though. Just over a minute after her first goal, the Cavaliers found themselves on an odd man rush. After a nice pass from Adams, Watchilla delivered a powerful backhand that found the back of the cage.
Watchilla attributed the success of Virginia’s attack to “being dirty in the circle.” It certainly showed today as the Virginia strikers did a great job of finding space in the circle and creating dangerous chances on net all game.
Virginia took a 3-1 lead into the half after not allowing a single Stanford shot in the second quarter, and early in the third it was much of the same. Watchilla had a chance on a breakaway and also drew a penalty corner, but the Cavaliers failed to capitalize on either.
The Cardinal began to push offensively as the third quarter wore on and it was finally able to cut the lead in half near the end of the quarter after junior midfielder Esther Pottebaum’s cross snuck under the pad of junior goalkeeper Nilou Lempers and sophomore midfielder Nadine Brenninkmeyer tapped it in on the backside.
Just two minutes after the fourth quarter began, Adams made a pair of beautiful stick moves right in front before sending a shot past Stanford’s sophomore goalie Anya Jackson putting Virginia back up a pair with the eventual game winner.
The Cardinal got one back after a review gave them a penalty corner leading to fifth-year midfielder/forward Maroussia Walckiers’ goal at the 49 minute mark, but it was too little too late as the Cavaliers defense held strong for the final 11 minutes of regulation. The Cardinal had one more shot at tying it up with a corner at the 53 minute mark, but strong defense up top from senior midfielder Caroline Nemec helped Virginia to stave off the Stanford attempt and get the ball out.
Despite the Cavaliers’ high offensive production, Coach Ole Keusgen was critical of his team’s inability to truly put the Cardinal away throughout the match.
“We kept them in the game too long,” Keusgen said. “[Stanford] caught fire at the end, [we were] allowing too many circle entries, too many shots, which is uncharacteristic of us.”
Even so, Virginia was able to bleed out the clock on the 4-3 win, garnering a slot in the ACC semifinals. The Cavaliers return to tournament action against Syracuse — who they beat in at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. The match will be broadcast on ACCNX.
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