Last weekend, in nearly identical fashion to last year's "Boston Massacre," Virginia took on Boston College and Boston University on back-to-back days, and came up short both times. Virginia lost 2-1 Saturday to Boston College and 3-0 Sunday to Boston University. Prior to the weekend, players and coaches alike talked about redeeming themselves after last season's trouncing by the two schools and about the importance of starting off the ACC season strong. After the dust settled last weekend, Virginia accomplished neither.
"We just didn't buy into our gameplan," junior Inge Kaars Sijpesteijn said. "We just didn't believe in ourselves, and you could see it on the field."
One area in which the Cavaliers (5-4, 0-1 ACC) experienced problems during the weekend was in short corners on both offense and defense. Offensively, the Cavaliers earned 17 short corners over the weekend, but did not convert on any of them. Defensively, they allowed just six short corners, two of which were converted for goals. For the Cavaliers to be competitive in the ACC, the consistency on these set pieces and the overall Cavaliers' determination in the circle will have to improve.
"We practice it [short corners] a lot, it's just determination," Kaars Sijpesteijn said. "It's hard to score out of one corner, it's usually a rebound or something, and we have to learn to get on it."
After the disappointing showing last weekend, Virginia does not plan on dwelling on the downfall. As they plan to take on No. 2 Maryland (9-0, 2-0 ACC) in College Park this weekend, the Cavaliers will have to leave their shortcomings exactly where they happened: in Charlottesville.
"We can talk about it forever, but it's no use, we just have to do it," Kaars Sijpesteijn said. "It's every person for [herself] to change the mindset."
Virginia will have to turn itself around quickly in order to compete with a team of the Terrapins' caliber. In their nine games, the Terrapins have allowed just six goals and have shut out their opponents five times. Offensively, freshman Katie O'Donnell has 12 goals and 12 assists to lead a Maryland team that averages 4.6 goals per game. Although Maryland is certainly the favorite, the Cavaliers think they can handle the challenge as long as they enter the game with the right mental approach.
"We're a good team, it's just our mental mind-set -- how we go in the game," Kaars Sijpesteijn said. "If we dare to give everything we can and just stick to the game plan, I think we could do a lot of good things."
If nothing else, Virginia can be comforted by the fact that they have been through this ordeal before. After falling to Boston College and Boston University last year, the Cavaliers recovered to win five of their next six games.
"If you're going to be a good team, you have to be able to turn these things into positive experiences," coach Michele Madison said. "If you don't learn something from a loss then it wasn't worth losing"
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