Virginia has dominated this recent rivalry, going 11 – 4 – 3 heading into Sunday’s game. The blip on the record came last year as the teams had an in-season home and home series, which West Virginia “won” by winning in Morgantown and then drawing the Cavaliers in the return match in Charlottesville. Sibley scored the winning goal at home and the tying goal at Klockner. Shutting her down, which the Cavs were successful in doing, was made easier by the absence of West Virginia’s leading scorer, Alina Stahl, who was out with an undisclosed injury.
West Virgina  0
Virginia      1
Against the overmatched Richmond Spiders, coach Steve Swanson loaded up on offense, starting Haley Hopkins as a fourth forward and playing a vanilla three-back defense. Against a quality foe, Swanson reverted back to a 4 – 3 – 3 and it now seems apparent that sophomore Laney Rouse has leapfrogged both Lizzie Sieracki and Sarah Clark as the preferred right back. On the left, Samar Guidry was again a terror, only with the added wrinkle of her teammates laying the ball out in front of her for her to run on. Usually, being the gifted dribbler she is, she advances the ball down the wing, but in the games opening minutes it was apparent that playing the through ball for her was part of the game plan.
It paid off quickly as in just the game’s seventh minute, she ran on to the ball, turned defender Nicole Payne pretty easily, and made a lovely cross to the awaiting Diana Ordonez for the ensuing goal. It was if Ordonez had read my criticism of her aerial game in the Richmond game report, because she he gave it tothe Mountaineers on this one. It would be the only goal that Virginia would need. A carbon copy play came just 12 minutes later – Guidry crossing to Ordonez – that Ordonez fizzed wide of the post. She may have been overthinking it. WVU’s keeper, Kayza Massey is big and very quick and one has to beat her. An average shot is not going to slip into her net.
The one goal was enough. Although the Mountaineers started off on the right foot, controlling much of the first 6 minutes of play, the first half belonged to the Cavaliers. The team defense was outstanding as the midfield trio of Lia Godfrey, Taryn Torres and Sydney Zandi attacked every outlet pass, swarmed every Mountaineer, and prevented them from playing through the lines. Even a heat-mandated water break did not give WVU the chance to claw back into the game in the first half. The on-ball domination, though, did not give Virginia the opportunity to extend the lead as at half time, they only had two shots – both the Ordonez headers – and a single corner.
In the second half, the game opened up a bit, but I expect the heat and humidity played more of a role. There were more corners for both teams, but they were surprisingly poor across the board. Both teams, on two occasions, just drilled the balls straight out of bounds, which I attribute to tiredness. Virginia allowed WVU back into the game as the midfield energy drained a bit and the Cavaliers started committing unforced errors in bunches. In the 20th minute Zandi delivered a perfect through ball to Hopkins, which if she converted, would have sealed the victory. But Hopkins was a step slow trying to go around the hard-charging Massey coming off her line, and the opportunity was squandered.
The last three minutes of the game offered a perfect metaphor for the dogfight that “unpretty” game had become. Sieracki, Godfrey and Ordonez were able to drain the game of all life, successfully killing the clock by taking the ball down to the corner flag. It was textbook 101 in professionally taking the air out of the ball and securing a win on the road, against a good team that had carried the results against us last spring.
Next Up: A bit of a tune-up away at George Mason on Thursday, 26 August, as the team prepares for the gala match before the beginning of ACC play: Santa Clara in Harrisonburg. The day of the match has been changed. It is now being played on Thursday, September 2nd at 8pm.
Injury Notes: Lizzie Sieracki played. That’s good news, but given her value to Swanson, I have to think she’s nursing an injury as she logged maybe 13 minutes vs WVU. Alexa Spaanstra tweaked her ankle in the first half and tried several times to play through the pain, but she was taken off much earlier in each half. Spaanstra was injured last year – maybe against Clemson? – and I don’t think she’s been the same player since. She’s lost her burst and she rarely beats anyone on the dribble anymore. If this injury further erodes her touch, Virginia’s ceiling just got a little lower.