Milwaukee was (a.) the second highest scoring team in the NCAA, (b.) possessed the  highest goals per-game average, while having (c.) the best goals against average. In other words, Milwaukee had, by the stats that matter the most, the best offense and the best defense. But the most eye-popping stat of all might be their 74 – 0 – 0 record over the past four years when the Panthers score first. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a stat in soccer that is so one-sided.
Virginia        2
Milwaukee   0
Coach Steve Swanson has helmed Virginia for 500 games, as of this game. The difference in experience between Swanson and his counterpart – only in his fourth year – set the tone for entire game. Milwaukee was never in the game. Not really. They only had two total shots in the game – both were fairly weak and from outside the penalty box – and by my recollection, they only completed a single pass inside the Virginia penalty box.
It’s not to say that Milwaukee bunkered, didn’t try, or even gave up. They were just outclassed. The game was extremely choppy — fairly heavy rain leading up to kickoff and for the first 15 minutes, and then dropping temperatures and a stiff wind for the second half – and neither team was able to control the ball. There were probably as many throw-ins that I have seen in a soccer game, which I attribute to hard defensive work causing unforced errors and denying the point of attack.
The work that Virginia put in on practicing their crosses versus High Point came to fruition in this game. Diana Ordonez, who became the 3rd leading scorer in program history with her two-goal brace against Milwaukee, was the intended target on both assisting crosses. The first came 25 minutes into the first half and was delivered by Samar Guidry. Ordonez had been the recipient of three quality crosses already by this point in the game – and she’d failed to convert – but this header in to the upper netting of the goal was all but unstoppable. The second goal, coming late in the second to ice the game, was delivered by Alexa Spaanstra. Spaanstra had gotten baseline by laying waste to a pair of Milwaukee defenders, and she sent in a sharp pass to an on-rushing Ordonez who simply had to re-direct the ball into the back of the net. It was a classic striker’s goal. And representing just the 8th goal that Milwaukee had surrendered all season, it doomed the Panthers and sent them back home early.
By that time the game had gotten pretty chippy. I thought the ref had done a fine job on the night and there were no obvious blown calls or hard tackles. But the players across the board were complaining more about calls/non-calls. Diana Ordonez thinks everything is a foul and every out of bounds ball should result in a Virginia throw or corner kick. Seeing her complain doesn’t mean a lot. But when you see Talia Staude or Lia Godfrey gesticulating or talking to the ref, well, something more is going on on the field. And it must have gotten to the Virginia coaching staff because after Ordonez scored her second goal, some unspecified Virginia coach got a yellow card. You don’t often see such displays after one has iced the game.
Injury Watch: Lia Godfrey was back in the starting lineup and played her usual minutes. Her quad/thigh was wrapped in a compression sleeve and the announcer made reference to her niggling injury that had kept her out of the High Point game.
Lacey McCormack was back in action and was able to spell Claire Constant the last 7 minutes of the game.
Next Up. Milwaukee may have been the second highest scoring team in the country, but Virginia gets to follow this game with a matchup versus BYU, the highest scoring team in the country. BYU doesn’t play on Sundays, so the match will be Saturday, November 20th at 7pm. Enjoying the fruits of a #1 seed, this game will also be at home.
Each sport has its own set of distinctives, those aspects that set it apart from every other sport. One of my favorite distinctives in baseball is the notion that each team gets its fair ups. The clock can’t run out and it doesn’t matter what the score it. Regardless of whatever else might have gone wrong for a team thus far, every team knows it will get its turn in the ninth. I loved the old ACC where every team got a home and home pairing with each and every other team in the conference. It didn’t matter what happened in the first matchup, there would be a second game, a second chance at redemption.
This doesn’t happen often in soccer, but BYU has been given the ultimate redemptive experience. Last year BYU got as it’s reward for a #4 seeding and its record as the highest-scoring team in the land, a second-round matchup with an unseeded Virginia team. BYU was really good and dominated the Cavaliers in midfield like few teams have done. Virginia keeper Laurel Ivory made a trio of first class saves to prevent Virginia from having been blown out in the first five minutes of the game. I guarantee that BYU had this potential matchup highlighted in red the instant the brackets were revealed. BYU has a lot to prove and the requisite firepower to threaten the end of Virginia’s season.
Miscelaneous: Jeff White had a particularly nice profile of Sydney Zandi ahead of the Milwaukee game.  Zandi has been a three-year starter at Virginia, and it’s somewhat strange to talk about a fifth-year senior “making the leap,” but she has. She went from splitting time with Anna Sumpter last year, to being the most active of Virginia’s midfielders.