WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - ãWake Forest handed the Virginia field hockey team a 5-1 loss Sunday in the second round of the NCAA tournament to put an end to the Cavaliers' season. Virginia ended coach Jessica Wilk's second year at the helm with a 14-8 overall record.
Demon Deacons' senior Jennie Shelton was almost unstoppable, posting four goals and nine points on the afternoon. Her goal total is a single-game tournament record and she is just the third person to ever reach nine points in a NCAA tournament game.
Shelton's first goal came on an assist from Kelly Doton with 13 minutes, 39 seconds left in the first half. Seven minutes later, she took a feed from Jemima Cameron to put the Wake Forest up 2-0.
Virginia struck back with two minutes left in the half when tri-captains Mason White, Carrie Goodloe and Jessie Coleman combined on a penalty corner to bring the Cavaliers within one. Virginia would not get out from under Wake Forest's crushing momentum, however, and the Demon Deacons would score three more times in the second half.
Shelton earned an assist to accompany her four goals when she fed Heather Aughinbaugh with 13:08 to go in the second half. She put the finishing touches on the Demon Deacons' and her afternoon with two more goals in the final four-and-a-half minutes of the game.
Virginia struggled to finish opportunities in the face of such an offensive onslaught. According to Wilk, the entire tone of the game might have been different had the Cavaliers been able to convert one of their chances when Wake was only up by one.
Wake Forest will face ACC foe Maryland on Friday in the Final Four at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.
Although they do not advance to the Final Four, the weekend was not a total loss for Virginia since they topped Ohio State, 2-1, in a hard-fought overtime contest in the first round on Saturday.
The game was scoreless until the Buckeyes' Stacey Todd put the ball in the cage with just over 12 minutes left in the game. Virginia came roaring back three minutes later when White scored her second career goal on a rebound from sophomore Katie Jo Gerfen's corner shot.
Virginia managed to deny the Buckeyes on several offensive attempts in the 15-minute sudden-death overtime period before Coleman put the rebound from her own corner shot in the goal to hand the Cavaliers the win with 5:11 left in the extra period. The win maintained Virginia's perfect overtime record this season at 4-0.
"It was a fantastic game," Wilk said. "It's tough when you get scored on late in the game but we did a good job fighting."
"It wasn't our best game but we fought hard," White agreed. "We didn't have our best skills but it came down to the fight."
It was fitting that Virginia had the chance to put its heart on display this weekend. Perseverance has been the Cavaliers' trademark all season. They may not have wound up in the Final Four, but they can call a season in which they toppled then-No. 1 Maryland, 3-2, on Sept. 31 and never dropped a game that required extra minutes a success.
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