No. 12 Virginia women’s soccer concluded its six-game homestand Thursday when they faced No. 10 Tennessee at Klöckner Stadium. The Cavaliers (4-0-1, 0-0-0 ACC) conceded early but battled back and secured a 1-1 result versus the Volunteers (4-0-1, 0-0-0 SEC).
Thursday’s affair proved to be, especially in the early stages of the game, a bit of a wake-up call for Virginia. Tennessee came out of the gates looking like a much better team, with clearly superior energy — a point that the Cavaliers’ Coach Steve Swanson emphasized postgame.
“They’re a great team and well organized,” Swanson said. “They put pressure on us that we hadn’t seen to this point … Overall, there are a lot of lessons we can take away.”
When the Volunteers were clicking, they were able to exploit Virginia’s back line with their pace and physicality to find chances. When the whistle blew to start the game, Virginia was suddenly on the back foot, feeling the weight of Tennessee’s press. Senior forward Taylor Cheatham took advantage at this early run of play, getting in behind the Cavalier defense and finishing a one-on-one chance against Virginia’s fourth-year goalkeeper Victoria Safradin — who might’ve had a better chance at a save if she’d come out of her goal quicker.
The Volunteers kept up their intensity throughout the early part of the first half, but the Cavaliers were able to recover and create some chances of their own as the first period came to a close.
“[Tennessee is] a very good team,” Swanson said. “They could have had a few more in that first 15 minutes and we weathered that storm.”
Soon after play resumed for the final 45 minutes, Virginia quickly righted its wrongs. A beauty of a cross from fifth-year defender Faith Broering looped over the heads of the Tennessee defenders, finding second-year midfielder Addison Halpern right in front of goal, who nodded it home.
Halpern's fifth goal of the season — in as many games — once again showed her knack for being in dangerous places at the right time. When the Cavaliers have needed a sparkplug, she has consistently been the one to look for this season. Halpern almost doubled her tally in the 67th minute when some good interplay between her and fourth-year forward Aniyah Collier resulted in a deflection, which Halpern recollected and shot again, just to find the meat of the near post and rebound out of play.
Virginia wasn’t in the clear yet though, and the contest veered back into the Volunteers’ control, who looked dangerous in the latter stages of the affair.
WIth just two minutes remaining on the clock, a simple touch pass freed Tennessee’s junior midfielder Ines Derrien at the top of the box. Her curled effort traveled high and fast toward the upper left corner of the Cavalier goal, but Safradin was able to make the acrobatic save.
Despite the scare near full time, Virginia had a lot of good things to take away from the game. Competing against and getting a result versus the Volunteers in the early stages of the season gave the Cavaliers a sneak peak of postseason soccer. Additionally, the group showed resilience to come back from an early deficit — and their first deficit of the season.
“As the game progressed, we got ourselves into the game,” Swanson said. “We showed a lot of grit and depth. We got a great goal in the second half and were in a great position to get a couple more.”
Virginia will try to get back in the win column Sunday when the Cavaliers travel to face Georgetown. The match is set to begin at 1 p.m.
Read More
Wuebker’s career day powers Virginia past William & Mary
By Joby Jung | 1 hours agoThe Cavaliers (2-1, 0-0 ACC) opened the match with a narrow win in the first set before their opponents rallied to blow open the second, tying the match at one set apiece. Virginia fought through a tight third set to retake the lead, then closed it out for a four-set victory over the Tribe (1-3, 0-0 CAA), 25-23, 15-25, 25-19, 25-21.
Virginia singes Flames, earns first win of the season
By Drew Dillman | 2 days agoOn a hot and humid first day of September, the song of the same name by Earth, Wind & Fire played over the loudspeaker during pre-match warm-ups. The lyrics of that song go “Dancin’ in September,” and the Cavaliers (1-1, 0-0 ACC) had reason to by the end of the night, winning in four sets against Liberty (2-2, 0-0 Conference USA), 25-17, 26-24, 25-9 and 25-18.
The boys of summer: Virginia takes on summer leagues
By Drew Dillman | 2 days agoThe Cavaliers spent their offseason improving their craft in wood-bat summer baseball leagues.
