With the start of the ACC Tournament just around the corner, the Virginia field hockey team hopes to maintain its winning streak against non-conference opponents as it nears the final stretch of the regular season, returning home to host Radford tonight.
The No. 3 Cavaliers (15-2, 2-2 ACC) enter today's matchup against the Highlanders (9-8, 5-1 NorPac East) boasting an impressive 12-0 record against non-conference opponents and a 7-1 overall record at home this season.
Virginia can attribute a large part of its success in its 12 games against non-conference opponents to exceptional offensive production. Sophomore midfielder Paige Selenski leads the squad with 21 goals this season, 17 of which have come in non-conference play.
Selenski also played an integral role in Virginia's ACC win last weekend against No. 6 Wake Forest at Kentner Stadium. Selenski scored the first of two second half goals for the Cavaliers by converting on a penalty corner.
"It was a great confidence boost especially since [our goals] were second half goals," senior back Lauren Elstein said. "It showed the maturity of the team. We went all out. We still have a lot of things to work on, but the team stayed together the whole game which was really encouraging."
Virginia coach Michele Madison was encouraged as well by her players' performance against the Demon Deacons, especially as the team begins to prepare for postseaon play.
"The biggest confidence boost was how we played, how [we] executed our press and generated our attack and ran the game plan," Madison said.
Against the high-scoring Cavaliers, the Highlanders will need to bring a level of play not yet seen this season against ranked opponents. In its three matches against ranked opponents, Radford has been out-scored 21-1 and out-shot 81-11.
Regardless of Radford's lack of success thus far, though, Madison this week stressed the importance of entering the matchup against the Highlanders with the same intensity as would be brought to any ACC match.
"It's the same focus: always on the execution of the team and its performance," Madison said. "It doesn't matter who we are playing. We want to perform and [tonight] won't be any different."
The players possess a similar attitude about what they need to do to remain undefeated in non-conference play.
"We have to focus on [tonight] before we can focus on anything else," Elstein said. "We are just going to go out and execute our game plan."
After facing Radford, the Cavaliers will close out their regular season against ACC rival Duke this Saturday at Turf Field before hosting the ACC Tournament, which will begin Nov. 5.
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