Virginia returned from a tournament in Arizona this week 3-1-1 after accruing a win and a tie against Arizona and Arizona State, respectively. Though they successfully defeated the Wildcats 4-1 in the first game of the weekend, the Cavaliers struggled during their second game, which included two overtimes and resulted in a 1-1 draw with the Sun Devils.
"I think in the first game we saw that we didn't play that well but we finished," junior midfielder Sinead Farrelly said. "I think we learned that even though we'll get a lot of chances if we don't finish them, we are not going to get the result we need. So we need to make every quality chance count."
Four Cavaliers scored against Arizona, highlighting Virginia's many scoring threats.
"We've got some options off the bench," coach Steve Swanson said. "The difficulty for us is trying to get a rhythm with the depth that we have."
The Cavaliers' defense managed to shut out the Wildcats until a penalty kick in the 90th minute ended sophomore goalkeeper Chantel Jones' 353-minute shutout streak.
This weekend, the Cavaliers will face their second important test of the season in the Virginia Nike Soccer Classic, taking on No. 15 West Virginia. Virginia is looking for revenge against the Mountaineers after a 3-0 loss last year.
"I don't know how that happened," Farrelly said. "Everyone is definitely really pumped up to play them."
Last season, the Mountaineers handed Virginia its first loss in convincing fashion. Not only was it the team's first loss, it was the first game in which the Cavaliers did not score at least one goal.
Somewhat unique to the Mountaineer's victory in 2008 was the squad's ability to hold Virginia to only four shots. The Cavaliers' poor performance typically can be attributed to an inability to finish scoring chances. In the game against West Virginia, however, the Cavaliers were unable to even find those opportunities.
This season though, offense does not seem to be a problem for Virginia. The team has outshot its opponents 109 to 32, while still maintaining a shooting percentage of 0.156 compared to its opponents' 0.094.
"When Caroline [Miller] gets faced up 1 v 1 she is hard to stop," Swanson said. "I think that with a lot of our players. Sinead is the same way, Jess [Rostedt] is the same way, Caitlin [Miskel] is the way, Lauren [Alwine] is the same way. And we are able to get those guys on the offense a bit more."
After Friday night's game at Kl
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