After a 4-1 loss to North Carolina on Sunday, the Virginia field hockey team (9-4) rallied to shut out Radford, 3-0, yesterday on a chilly evening at University Hall Turf Field. Senior co-captain Jessie Coleman, junior Katie Slocum and freshman Kiersten Van Hooser each put an unassisted goal on the board to hand the Cavaliers a relatively easy victory over the Highlanders (3-11).
Virginia missed an early opportunity to score when senior co-captain Carrie Goodloe failed to put a penalty stroke past Radford goalkeeper Brooke Peterson 4 minutes, 30 seconds into the game. Slocum then sneaked one in with 25:08 left in the half to put the Cavaliers on the board. The goal was Slocum's sixth of the season, the second-highest total on the team.
Virginia forced another four corners in the half but was unable to convert and the score remained 1-0 at the half.
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Coleman danced around the goal with a few wide shots early in the second half before stealing the ball near the top of the circle and driving to the cage for Virginia's second goal of the night. Coleman's 13 goals make her Virginia's leading scorer.
The Cavaliers applied almost all of the offensive pressure for the duration of the game and scored again when sophomore Katie Jo Gerfen's shot ricocheted off the Radford goalkeeper and Van Hooser put in the rebound with 8:36 left to play.
Peterson earned 14 saves on the evening and twice got help fending off the Virginia offense on the line. The Cavaliers put 22 shots on goal compared to the Highlanders' three.
"We were passing well tonight," Coleman said. "We were using each other and using simple combinations. It was definitely a step up from our last game."
"The first half we had good off-ball movement and good ball pattern," Virginia coach Jessica Wilk said. "I thought we were a little stagnant in the second half but I think overall we're moving in the right direction."
It was certainly the right direction in light of Sunday's home loss to No. 5 North Carolina. The Tar Heels put three goals on the board before Goodloe was able to capitalize on a penalty corner in the waning seconds of the first half. North Carolina scored again on a corner in the second half to put them up by three for good.
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