At this point in the season, there are few teams in the nation playing as well as the No. 2 Virginia women’s soccer team. But with a challenging matchup against Rutgers in the second round of the NCAA tournament set for Friday, the Cavaliers are taking nothing for granted.
“As a team, you’ve got to have that hunger to continue to improve, you’ve got to have that hunger to know that your best performance is still out there somewhere,” coach Steve Swanson said. “You’ve got to conjure that up, and you’ve got to make that happen game in and game out.“
Virginia (17-4-1, 6-3-1 ACC) opened tournament play with a trying matchup against then-No. 20 La Salle last Friday. The Cavaliers weathered several difficult stretches against the Explorers but were able to power through, managing 20 shots en route to a 4-1 win.
“For us, we obviously have great attacking players, and the formation we’re playing plays to that,” sophomore midfielder Morgan Brian said. “For us to get chances like [those against La Salle] and keep putting them away will be crucial in the tournament.”
This late in the season, there is neither the time nor the need to make major changes to the team’s play. The focus in practice this week has been perfecting aspects of the game that are already the team’s strengths. That means sharpening the ball movement and speed of attack that has been the hallmark of a Virginia offense that has managed to tally at least four goals in five of the last six games.
“Teams might play us differently, maybe come back [behind the defense] a little bit more, but in that case we just need to keep moving the ball,” junior forward Gloria Douglas said. “As long as we move the ball, we can get them out of line a little bit, and that’s where we succeed the most.”
The Cavaliers come up against another strong opponent in Rutgers (13-7-1, 5-5-1 Big East), which downed Colgate 1-0 in the tournament’s opening round. The Scarlet Knights finished near the middle of the pack in the competitive Big East but gained an at-large bid to the tournament.
Redshirt junior forward Jonelle Filigno, who won a bronze medal this summer as a member of the Canadian national team, leads the team in scoring with 14 goals this season. Virginia is preparing for what Rutgers brings to the pitch, but the team does not plan to deviate from its preferred style of play..
“We’ve got to get a feel for how [the Scarlet Knights] play, and how we’ll combat that,” Swanson said. “We’re really concentrating on the things that we’ve been doing. We’ll really put the focus on ourselves, what we need to do in certain situation, how we can get a little bit better. We’ll look at our performance and see how we can build on it.”
A win against Rutgers could set up a third-round matchup Sunday against ACC rival Duke, which takes on Miami of Ohio in Charlottesville Friday. If the Cavaliers can get through the weekend, it will mean a return trip to the quarterfinals, where their season ended last year.
Given its recent play, Virginia is cautiously optimistic of its tournament chances.
“The fact of the matter is, we’re playing for survival,” Douglas said. “As long we just keep the game plan and play how we did in the ACC, I don’t see any trouble.”
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