A win over Texas A&M tonight would not only give the Virginia women's soccer team an NCAA quarterfinal birth for the second year in a row but also its third straight win over a top-ten team in the last week.
"The playoff mentality is the same this year," senior goalkeeper Christina de Vries said. "We believe that we can get into the quarterfinals -- we played extremely well in the third round last year, and I don't see any reason we wouldn't play well again."
The Aggies will have the home field advantage in College Station, Texas. The Cavaliers have never played at Texas A&M, and Virginia coach Steve Swanson is anticipating a tough atmosphere inside Aggie Soccer Stadium.
"They are a very good team at home," Virginia coach Steve Swanson said. "They get great crowds there, and I think that the environment will be something for us to get used to -- the vocal crowd will be a little different."
Virginia, however, is confident that the team will continue to perform well on the road. Despite this season's less-than-stellar record away from home, last weekend the Cavaliers convincingly defeated both West Virginia and Wake Forest 2-0 in Winston-Salem, N.C. Seeing as those victories were only the fourth and fifth NCAA Tournament wins the Cavaliers have ever posted away from Charlottesville, the Cavaliers seem to have finally figured out how to be a fierce opponent outside of Charlottesville.
"We learned a lot from our losses -- especially when we were on the road," sophomore Jess Rostdet said. "We didn't win very many away from home, and we definitely have grown as the season has progressed. We've learned what we need to do away from home when we don't have our crowd or Klöckner to play on."
Indeed, the Virginia women have chosen the right moment to pull everything together. Following a disappointing first round loss in the ACC Tournament, the team originally just felt fortunate that an NCAA bid had given them one another chance this season. Last weekend's performance in the opening rounds, however, demonstrated that the women were deserving of their at-large bid.
"I think the problem earlier in the season was that we weren't getting results in games where we thought we should have," Swanson said. "Obviously that works on your psyche, because it's tough when you aren't rewarded for your work. That's something we just had to go through, however, but I think it's actually helped us, both mentally and physically."
The Cavaliers believe that all aspects of their game have improved: the defensive line has begun moving the ball quicker and talking more, while the offense has been making better decisions on the ball and has been capitalizing on its scoring opportunities. As a whole, the team is playing its best soccer to date.
"We are scoring, and that was what we had trouble doing," de Vries said. "Now we are putting balls in the back of the net, and me and the defense as a whole are all very confident that we can stop any other team's offense -- we have an extremely athletic backline that will be hard for anyone to score on."
Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Read More
With much-needed win over Miami, men’s basketball ends road losing streak
By Emory Huffman | 7 hours agoIt was another battle of the bottom, and Virginia proved it is at least above the conference's floor.
Men’s and women’s squash find success at CSA Individual Championships
By Peter Kratz | 8 hours agoIn individual competition, the Cavaliers excelled.
Virginia baseball has an ace up its sleeve and in its bullpen — Dean Kampschror
By Xander Tilock | YesterdayThe senior pitcher is exactly what the Cavaliers need to succeed in 2025.
