The Virginia women’s soccer team will begin its away season today, traveling to Athens, Ga. to take on Georgia and Auburn in two games of the Georgia Nike Invitational. Coach Steve Swanson said Virginia's biggest challenge will be staying focused in a season already full of success.
“Good teams don’t really understand how to handle success,” Swanson said. “Great teams — teams that win championships — know how to handle that.”
Having already won their first three games by sizeable margins, the Cavaliers (3-0) have had a chance to enjoy success. Swanson noted, however, the importance of not taking any teams for granted, mentioning various upsets that have already occurred in the ACC. This weekend will be an opportunity to see how Virginia performs away from Klöckner Stadium against more challenging competition. The first of these two games, against Georgia, will be especially tough — Georgia will be Virginia’s first ranked opponent of the season — so the team will have to play to its strengths.
One of the keys to Virginia’s success thus far is that the Cavaliers have yet to allow a goal. This is likely driven by a combination of factors. Virginia uses its high-powered offense and midfielders to extend pressure on the other team. This pressure often causes opponents to be unable to establish coherent transitions from their defensive side of the field to their offense.
“In our first game against Loyola, I thought our defense did a great job of not letting the team get behind us once,” Swanson said. He added that against Liberty, "it was more us putting a little better pressure on the ball up the field where it doesn’t get to the point where they’re serving it. I think a couple times they were just looking to counter on us.”
In addition to the up-field pressure, the Cavaliers have an experienced senior goalie in Celeste Miles behind a solid defensive line. While Miles has made many key plays in maintaining Virginia’s shutout season thus far, she has yet to record a save. This seems to be more a credit to sound defense from the Cavaliers' back line than anything else.
“I think that the shutouts have been a great team effort — made it pretty easy for me,” Miles said. “We are just building on each game, getting better as a defense and a team.”
Georgia (2-1) is currently No. 22 nationally; its most noteworthy game has been a 4-1 loss to BYU. This weekend, the Bulldogs will get a chance to overcome that loss and prove themselves by playing No. 6 Virginia and No. 7 Stanford. One thing Georgia will have in its favor is home field advantage.
Like Georgia, Auburn (2-2) will be playing both Stanford and Virginia in the Invitational. Unranked Auburn, fifth in the Western division of the SEC, will likely be outmatched in many positions against both Virginia and Auburn.
“We’ve had such a deep bench over the year," Swanson said. "I really like to spread the scoring out.”
Look for Virginia to take advantage of its depth this weekend, as it has throughout the season. Through three games, Virginia has had 17 different players record a point, including eight different goal scorers, creating a spread distribution of 14 goals and odds that will certainly benefit the team against tougher opponents.
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