Virginia women\u2019s soccer began its quest for ACC glory in Tallahassee, Fla. Sunday, taking on Florida State in the quarterfinal of the conference tournament. Although both teams remained scoreless for the entirety of the game, the No. 5 seed Cavaliers (12-2-4, 6-2-2 ACC) kept their cool to defeat the No. 4 seed Seminoles (10-2-4, 6-2-2 ACC) 6-5 in penalty kicks.<\/p>\n
Although neither side was able to break the deadlock in open play, the contest was still an exciting one. A combined 36 shots kept both the goalkeepers busy and the fans on their feet. Coach Steve Swanson recognized that in such a tightly contested battle, effort is key.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw a lot of heart to come down here after playing on Thursday and give the kind of effort we did,\u201d Swanson said. \u201cIt was an amazing team win. Florida State is a great team, and it\u2019s hard to keep them off the scoreboard.\u201d<\/p>\n
During regulation, the Seminoles had the better share of chances \u2014 it took some stout defending in all phases to keep the scoreline level. In some moments, the Cavaliers seemed to just be weathering the Florida State storm. The Seminoles doubled Virginia\u2019s tally of shots on goal and corner kicks, but the Cavalier defense held strong.<\/p>\n
Junior goalkeeper Victoria Safradin had one of the best games of her Virginia career, producing eight saves and doing well to clear crosses and organize her backline. Additionally, the Cavaliers\u2019 defense seemed to be on a mission to block shots, sacrificing legs, thighs and torsos alike to relieve the pressure.<\/p>\n
Although Florida State had the lion\u2019s share of chances, the best opportunity of the game belonged to Virginia. Midway through the second half, senior forward Maggie Cagle earned a free kick in a dangerous position just outside the box. Fifth-year midfielder Lia Godfrey stepped up and delivered a sweet strike over the wall and toward the near post, but Seminole freshman goalkeeper Kate Ockene made a beautiful save to prevent a goal.<\/p>\n
As full-time approached, both sides were exhausted, and the game was beginning to get stretched. Long spells of possession were becoming more and more rare, creating chaotic, pin-ball passing and uncharacteristic mistakes from both teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After neither side could break the deadlock, penalty kicks were necessary to see who would secure a trip to Cary, N.C., for the rest of the ACC Tournament. Both teams converted their first five attempts from the spot, meaning that sudden death was put into effect. Safradin made a great diving save, parrying away Florida State\u2019s sixth kick \u2014 meaning the Cavaliers just needed to score to secure a place in the semifinal.<\/p>\n
Senior midfielder Maya Carter stepped up and smashed her penalty into the top left corner, leaving Ockene no chance. Carter was swarmed by her Virginia teammates, while the Seminole players looked downwards in disappointment.<\/p>\n
In an environment where neither side can truly break down their opponent, defense became all the more important. Swanson highlighted how the Cavaliers\u2019 defensive efforts were key to victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the difference in the game,\u201d Swanson said. \u201cWe defended very well and put everything into this. I\u2019m proud of the team. We had some players step up in the shootout, and [Safradin] was awesome. We have to get rested now, that was a physical battle for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Virginia showed impressive grit to overcome a great conference opponent, an opponent that had gotten the better of the Cavaliers less than two weeks prior. If the Cavaliers can defend at that level in their upcoming games, it won\u2019t take much for the offense to put Virginia in a position to make it far.<\/p>\n
The Cavaliers return to action in the semifinals of the tournament Thursday, where they\u2019ll take on top-seeded Stanford. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Virginia women\u2019s soccer began its quest for ACC glory in Tallahassee, Fla. Sunday, taking on Florida State in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-262172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}