W Soccer Advances to Sweet 16 With Win Over WVU

Sunday, November 16 2008 by Tim

Back in September, then #9 Virginia travelled to Morgantown, W.Va. to take on then #15 West Virginia. The trip didn’t end well for the Cavaliers, as the Mountaineers handed them a 3-0 loss – their first of the season.

At noon today Virginia got a chance for redemption on their home field and they did not waste that opportunity, beating West Virginia 3-2 to advance to the NCAA Tournament round of 16. Virginia would jump on the board early, scoring in the 13th minute, and jumped out to a 3-0 lead by halftime. West Virginia would rally in the second half, scoring two goals, but in the end the rally fell short.

Senior Alli Fries got the Cavaliers on the board first, putting a header on net in the 13th minute on a header from the left corner. The senior gave way to the freshmen for the rest of the goals, however.

Freshman Maggie Kistner had a beautiful score with just a couple minutes left in the first half that I’m not even sure how to describe. She got the ball passed the goalie about 4 or 5 yards to the left of the goal. With the open net, she just had to chase down the ball, but she had a hard angle. She took the left foot shot (is she a lefty?) from no more than 2 yards off the endline and it curved beautifully into the net. She pretty much had one shot to take from that point and she executed it perfectly.

Just about a minute later, Kistner would contribute to another goal. She made a great cross-field pass to fellow freshman Lauren Alwine who shot the ball from just inside the penalty box right over the goalie’s head – the goalie had come out to defend the play – and into the net to give the Cavs the 3-0 lead they would take into halftime.

West Virginia would come out of halftime aggressive and scored quickly – making it 3-1 in the 47th minute. They’d notch another score in the 63rd minute on a play that was almost identical to the Cavaliers’ first goal – a header off a corner from the left side. But that was all the offense that the Mountaineers could muster.

The two goals by the freshman were very well executed, both in terms of the set up (where they positioned themselves relative to the defenders in order to get the ball) and execution (where they placed the ball on their kicks). This definitely bodes well for the future of the Cavalier Women’s Soccer program.

As has been the case a lot lately, I’ve got pictures from the game up in the photo gallery. There’s one shot of Alwine (I think) kicking the corner kick on which we scored our first goal, and also the header on which WVU scored their 2nd goal.

Notes

  • There was a rather comical series of events where a WVU player had blood on her leg. The sideline ref stopped play and she wiped it off with her sock. Not good enough. She went to the bench (opposite side of the field) and the trainer wiped it off. Still not good enough. The trainer put a small bandage on it. Still not good enough. The trainer put a bigger bandage on. Finally good enough. The WVU coach, bench and fans thought it was ridiculous, but I found it quite entertaining.
  • Even with the win, we still seemed to have problems with our passing. In the first half, it seemed we were just making sloppy passes. In the second half, it seemed we were just passing straight to WVU players a lot. Not trying to look for a dark cloud over this win, just something we need to continue working on as we progress towards the finals.