Coach Steve Swanson reverted to the 3-back line, this time with Claire Constant lining up at right back. Of all the options Swanson has tried in this young season, it still seems that Laney Rouse is only defender really comfortable attacking out of the back three. Samar Guidry, on the left, while not attacking the George Mason back line, did have a couple of nice crosses that were happily reminiscent of Courtney Petersen.
George Mason  0
Virginia        2
But the crosses were easily snuffed out. GM did play a back – 5 and both Haley Hopkins and Diana Ordonez were completely covered. When the Cavs tried passing the ball through the line, the Patriots were ready, so that left the team bombing away from long distance. Ordonez, Hopkins, Rebecca Jarrett, Alexa Spaanstra and Taryn Torres all gave it a go from distance which resulted a lot of goal kicks for GM keeper Louisa Moser. Seriously. She must have had 20 on the night.
Defensively the Virginia midfield struggled a bit as well. The starting trio of Torres, Godfrey, and Sydney Zandi, as well as first-off-the-bench subs Emma Dawson and Alexis Theoret, had been much more successful in denying any midfield possession to West Virginia, a much better team than George Mason. UVa is clearly better than GMU, but the Patriot midfield made much more of their limited opportunities than might have been anticipated.
The second half was better for the Cavaliers as in just the 3rd minute, Jarrett slipped a nice through ball to Hopkins who chipped it just wide. Five minutes later, Jarrett found a wide-open Torres outside the box. She had five – seven yards of space as every single Patriot defender was inside the 6-yard box. She cranked her shot into the top left of the goal and scored her first goal in what must be almost two years.
Less than 10 minutes later, Spaanstra found herself in almost the same exact spot, only she’d had to bring the ball clear across the field from the left touchline. She shot from the same spot but Spaanstra went for the right corner this time. Moser hadn’t had a prayer for either of the shots.
Two goals in the space of 10 minutes and the game was effectively over. All that remained was for the green team to come in and kill off the game. Sarah Brunner continues to impress as a wide, attacking midfielder. She attacks the goal like Anna Sumpter, but she’s just a step faster on her turns. And it looks like Alexis Theoret is auditioning for the role of central midfielder after Torres leaves next year. In both this and the West Virginia game, when Theoret has come in for Lia Godfrey, Theoret has manned the center of the pitch while Torres has moved out to the left.
For years I have felt that the team is soft on defending corner kicks. But in the past two games we’ve had a worrying problem making anything happen on ours. Twice against West Virginia and three times in this game, Godfrey and Torres have failed to put the ball into play, instead just drilling the ball into the side netting. I don’t know if it’s tiredness or just lack of concentration, but with another aerial threat in the form of Haley Hopkins, the team will need to better against the depth that is the ACC this year.
Injury Notes: I didn’t see anything happen to Lia Godfrey, but she gave way to Theoret just 10 minutes into the second half. That is not a normal substitution pattern, and it was before the Spaanstra goal, so the game was still very much in doubt. I also have to wonder what has happened to Lacy McCormack who has seen but maybe 10 minutes all season. Last year, while the team was getting crushed by injuries and contact tracing issues. McCormack proved to be wonderfully versatile, starting as central defender, midfielder and striker within a five-game streak.
Up next: One last tune-up before meeting Santa Clara in Harrisonburg. The Cavaliers host George Washington on Sunday, August 26th. Gametime is 2pm and the game will be carried by ACCNX.