2009. The round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament. The Cavaliers are down 2-0 at halftime against Penn State. To everyone present, it looks like the Virginia women's soccer season is coming to a premature end. That is, to everybody except the players on the Virginia women's soccer team.
Seemingly against all odds, the Cavaliers rally with six goals in less than 20 minutes to pull off one of the biggest comebacks in school history.
This year, with the Cavaliers heading to Happy Valley to play in the Penn State Invitational, it seems the Nittany Lions want some payback.
"There's actually an article in our locker room just that they're ready to play and they want revenge," senior forward Meghan Lenczyk said. "I think it's going be tough because they really want to get us back for that game. It's definitely going to be emotional."
Virginia is coming off of two very impressive regular season wins, beating Liberty 4-0 and Colgate 6-0 for a combined total of 46 shots, whereas their opponents managed just one. Still, it remains to be seen whether these victories were a result of the Cavaliers' prowess or just lackluster showings from their opponents.
"I think it's a little bit of both," Lenczyk said. "It's really encouraging to have two big wins like that, but I think there's a lot we can still learn from both the games. We still have a lot to improve on, and this weekend is going to be a huge test for us."
The coaches noted that the weekend will serve as a useful tool to evaluate where the team stands at the beginning of the season.
"We're away from home, we expect a good crowd, so it'll be a great atmosphere to assess things, and see where we are a little bit," coach Steve Swanson said. "I think our kids are excited about the challenge up there."
For the second match of the Invitational, the Cavaliers go up against Connecticut. But with a 0-2 start this season, the Huskies do not seem to present anywhere near the same kind of challenge posed by Penn State.
"I'd say we just take one game at a time," Lenczyk said. "Right now, our focus is Penn State. After that game, our focus is going to be UConn. I think the way we're looking at it is it's just going to be a tough weekend as a whole, but right now, focus on Penn State."
In addition to their strong performance in the two regular season games, the Cavaliers also have put up some strong results in preseason play, beating then-No. 4 Notre Dame 4-1 and tying James Madison 1-1.
"Notre Dame, that was one of the best we've ever played against them and they're a great team," Lenczyk said. "I think JMU was a little disappointing, but also, we have to take into account we were tired - we'd just played against Notre Dame. And we've learned from that, you know we came back the next day and played better after that."
That day-to-day improvement is an important factor for Lenczyk, especially when asked about her goals for the weekend.
"Hopefully, winning. That's what we want, that's our goal, but I see the team getting better and better every game, and I hope that trend continues throughout the season"
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