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Cavaliers claim close victory over Terps

It wasn't Virginia goalkeeper Anne Abernethy who stopped Maryland forward Ali Andrzejewski's point blank shot in the 70th minute. It wasn't even the post or the crossbar. It was a massive rain puddle right in front of the Cavalier goal.

With torrential rains turning the Klöckner Stadium field into a massive mud pit, both teams struggled with the elements more than their opponents Tuesday night. Only an early Virginia goal from sophomore midfielder Kelly Hammond when the conditions were merely miserable, instead of horrendous, kept the game from ending in a scoreless deadlock and gave No. 6 Virginia (11-1-2, 3-0-1 ACC) a narrow 1-0 victory over the Terrapins (7-5-1, 1-3).

"It was a good thing we got the goal early," senior goalkeeper Anne Abernethy said. "That was huge, because in these conditions, to get a goal at all is extremely difficult."

The Cavaliers switched up their formation from their usual 4-4-2 setup in order to get a quick jump on the Terrapins.

"We played a three front tonight to put pressure on their back line," Swanson said. "We wanted to try and get one early. I thought we had several chances in the first 20 minutes to get one and Kelly had a great goal. It was a nice little instinctive move."

Hammond collected a Lindsey Gusick rebound on the right side on the net, deked out Maryland goalkepper Kristen Barnhill and got the ball across the line while falling backwards away from the goal.

The play started with freshman midfielder Shannon Foley threading the needle through two Maryland defenders with a pass to sophomore midfielder Sarah Huffman on the left side. Huffman got the ball in the middle to Gusick, who was unable to get a clean shot off. Both Gusick and Huffman were credited with an assist on the goal in the 21st minute, Hammond's team-high 10th of the season.

Soon after Hammond's strike, conditions would deteriorate. A strong and steady rain fell throughout the game, but early in the second half the wind picked up and the water came down in sheets.

"The water was coming down from the grandstand and it was like a hurricane," Hammond said. "You couldn't see the ball, you couldn't hear anyone talking and it was disastrous."

Maryland was able to get a few good scoring chances in the second stanza, letting off nine shots to Virginia's five, but the Terrapins were consistently stymied by both the elements and Abernethy, who notched her seventh shutout of the season.

The senior goalkeeper had to adjust her play due to the conditions. The area in front of the goal was the wettest and muddiest part of the field.

"You just have to be careful not to get caught coming out and having a ball get stuck, leaving you in no man's land," Abernethy said."You just have to be careful to really get a hold on it, because the ball is so slippery."

Abernethy's diving save on Terrapin midfielder Audra Poulin in the 52nd minute, along with her breakaway stuff of Maryland's Ashly Kennedy just two minutes later, kept the momentum on Virginia's side and the Terrapins off the board.

Possibly the most impressive stop of the day, however, belonged to Virginia defender Katie Bunch. The junior's slide tackle of Kimmy Francis in front of an open goal stopped a sure Maryland score in the 58th minute.

On Saturday, the Cavaliers tied No. 13 Wake Forest 2-2 at home. Virginia trailed late in the contest, but a goal from senior forward Sarah Lane with only 86 seconds remaining sent the contest into overtime, where both teams failed to score.

The two recent results push Virginia's unbeaten streak to 11 games, the sixth longest current run in the country. The Cavaliers remain in second place in the ACC, just behind No. 1 North Carolina (14-0, 3-0 ACC).

"We've taken care of things home in the ACC and that's very important in our conference to take care of things on our home pitch."

Swanson took one look at the soaking wet field below and decided "pitch" may not have been the best term to use.

"Or your home lake, in this case," he said.

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