At least the Virginia women's soccer team has one load off its back. Just a week after losing to North Carolina in the ACC Tournament, the Cavaliers blew past Tennessee in a 3-0 win yesterday to advance to the third round of the NCAA playoffs for the first time in two years.
"I haven't been past the second round yet," junior Shannon Foley said. "I am so excited right now. We get to go to the Sweet Sixteen, and we still have the home-field advantage."
Virginia started the game off strong and continually challenged Tennessee's goal but, for the first 37 minutes, failed to break through. The Cavaliers may have been thinking back to their regular season meeting with Tennessee, when the game remained scoreless until the last 11 seconds, at which point the Lady Volunteers took a loose corner kick and deposited it in the goal.
Fortunately for the Cavaliers, 37 minutes into this weekend's matchup, Freshman forward Jess Rostedt took a pass from senior midfielder Noelle Kesselica and drew the keeper out of the goal. Once the net was open, Rostedt shot the ball in.
"[Virginia coach] Steve [Swanson] went over how she kind of comes off her line," Rostedt said. "She commits early. I had that in the back of my head, so I wasn't too surprised at how she came out."
Rostedt repeated the performance two minutes into the second half, this time on a pass from senior Sarah Huffman.
"We have awesome center midfielders," Rostedt said. "All three of them are seniors, and for the first one, [Keselica] just played a great ball into me, and for the second one, so did [Huffman]. Our seniors, our centers -- they're just awesome."
Ten minutes after Rostedt's goal, Foley took a ball from Keselica and kicked it into the far corner of the goal for the last score of the game.
The win is especially sweet in light of the regular season competition between the Lady Vols and the Cavaliers. For the Cavaliers, the loss was the middle of a streak of three tough games. The loss was preceded by a 5-2 defeat at Penn State and followed by a 2-2 tie with Dayton. For the Lady Vols, the win led to a turning point in their season, which culminated in their victory over Wake Forest Friday. Being able to put Tennessee behind them in the tournament showed how far the Cavaliers have come and how much the team has changed since that regular season game.
"I think the first time we played Tennessee we had a lot of chances in the first half we didn't finish," Swanson said. "I think that [in this game], we got that goal, and I think that settled us down. It's hard for any team away from home to chase a game, but I think, especially for Tennessee today, the way we were playing, the fact that we went up -- I think our kids got a lot of confidence from that."
Virginia now faces California State Fullerton, which defeated Southern California yesterday 3-1. But Tennessee coach Angela Kelly had some words for those who may be looking ahead to the other obstacle that has been weighing Virginia down.
"Virginia today was better organized than the UNC team -- and I have no problem saying this, I went to North Carolina -- that we saw on our opening game," Kelly said. "I know when they face each other in the semifinals, it will be a very different game than the one at ACCs."
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