Last week, the cards seemed so stacked against Virginia they formed an impenetrable wall. First, the Cavaliers lost a game in the last 11 seconds, then they tied Dayton after what would have been the winning goal was ruled offsides.
This week, however, the Cavaliers started off pounding the St. Bonaventure Bonnies 7-1 before coming back and squashing the Richmond Spiders 9-0. Friday, Virginia managed to capitalize on seven out of 32 shots, 19 of which were on goal. Sunday, Virginia made nine goals in 23 shots. More importantly, though, out of those 23 shots, 20 were on goal -- marking a huge improvement in Virginia's progress with coordination and finishing.
The biggest and most crucial difference, however, lies in how many players scored those goals, and who they were. Seven players contributed to Virginia's nine goals. Of those seven, two players had not yet scored this season, and Kara Frederick, who knocked the last two goals, had only scored once.
"This game we were definitely clicking," Rostedt said. "We were just working as a team for the first time in a while."
The game was relatively quiet until the 25th minute, when freshman Kelly Quinn took a pass from sophomore Jess Rostedt and placed it in the goal. Ariel Thompson scored three minutes later with what looked like a trap attempt that bounced over the head of the goalie before most players had realized what was going on. Rostedt came back five minutes later to sink in two goals about a minute apart.
On the other side of the field, standing a few feet out of the goal, Christina De Vries did stretches. In the span of ten minutes, Virginia had brought the score to 4-0, where it stayed until the half.
Jen Redmond scored her first goal of the season at the beginning of the second half, and things went dormant for 20 minutes again. By the time there was 30 minutes left in the game, there was barely a starting player left on the field. Even De Vries, who has played almost all of this season, was taken out for the second half. With basically a whole new team on the field, Virginia not only maintained the score but managed to get four more goals -- just as many as the starters had in the first half.
At the end of the day, Richmond returned home thoroughly defeated after a 9-0 loss.
"I thought we finally kind of busted through," Virginia coach Steve Swanson said. "It was nice to see us come through and finish solid. I think it gave the kids a lot of confidence."
Last weekend's games were exactly what Virginia asked for, and needed. The combination of being able to use the team's depth and capitalizing on scoring opportunities are the two things that have been missing from the Cavaliers' games so far. However, Virginia will not have much time to celebrate.
Next weekend, Virginia hits the road. And two stellar victories against mediocre teams by no means guarantee future performance, especially heading into conference competition. Even if Virginia has suddenly picked up the pace of play from last weekend and clicked as a team to finish its chances, the Cavaliers will need to maintain and improve their current level of playing if they want to start securing conference wins.
"[The wins] help give us confidence, but, at the same time, we also know that we are away and we are against Wake Forest," Thompson said. "We are in the ACC now, and it's going to be a lot tougher."
While the progress exhibited on the field last weekend was a positive change, the Cavaliers still has a long way to go before they can say they are where they want to be.
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