Saturday, as the Virginia women's soccer team takes on N.C. State in their last regular season game, the team hopes to make history repeat itself. In 2004 and 2005, the Cavaliers won their regular season finale match-ups against the Wolfpack before successful post-season showings. In a season of ups and downs, Virginia not only wants to win to end on a high note but also to sustain that note throughout the upcoming tournaments.
The Wolfpack (3-6-0, 9-7-2 ACC) will take the field Saturday against the 4-4-1 Cavaliers in the ACC (9-6-2 overall). Virginia downed N.C. State 2-0 last year, 3-0 in 2004 and 7-0 in 2003. Virginia will not go into Saturday's game expecting an easy win.
"I think any game on the road in the ACC will be hard," Virginia coach Steve Swanson said. "This is N.C. State's last regular season game, too, so I think the game will have a lot of emotion for them as well and we are expecting a tough match."
Come Saturday, Virginia will have had six days to recover from last weekend's unexpected and disappointing loss to the Maryland Terrapins. According to both the coaches and players, practice this week has demonstrated for everyone the team's impressive resilience.
"The players have been very good about rallying," Swanson said. "We have had a great week of practice so far and the training has been really good."
All this week, the women have been focusing on themselves, on playing what they dub "Virginia soccer" -- a possession-oriented and tactical game. Virginia's concern throughout the season has always been more internal than external, as Swanson and the girls prefer to focus on their game instead of that of their upcoming opponent.
Despite the upset, last weekend's showing at College Park was not a disaster. In fact, positive aspects have emerged from that game. For example, a relatively young team put the experience of playing nearly an entire game a man down under its belt.
"After the Maryland game I thought, even though we didn't get the result and we were down a player the whole game, I felt it was one of our better performances of the year," Swanson said. "And that is something we can build on. The biggest thing is that we make sure we are emotionally and mentally ready to go on Saturday."
In Raleigh, the Cavaliers are looking to play Virginia soccer by bringing the game that has won them so many victories at Klöckner on the road.
"We want to finish every chance we get, keep marking up tight in the box and not let anyone take shots," senior forward Kara Frederick said. "Basically we want to stop their chances and finish ours. We haven't gotten many wins on the road, but that certainly doesn't mean we can't do it."
Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Method Road Stadium.
Read More
Volleyball holds off Boston College in tight five-set win
By Lauren Halak | 18 hours agoSenior outside hitter Elayna Duprey led the team throughout the match with 22 points and 18 kills.
Virginia annihilated 41-14 in a must-win contest versus North Carolina
By Peter Kriebel | YesterdayJust about everything that could have gone wrong for Virginia football went wrong.
No. 24 women’s soccer not to be denied in late win over Clemson
By Sam Chun | 2 days agoThe Cavaliers topped Clemson 1-0 in front of a packed out Klöckner Stadium.
