The No. 1 Virginia women’s soccer team made history Thursday, becoming the first team in school history to open the season with 17 straight wins. The record, which ties an ACC mark as well, came at the expense of a struggling Miami team, who has now dropped three of its last four contests.
The Cavaliers were coming off of a monumental win in Chapel Hill, where they handed the Tar Heels just their third loss of the season. The win also made Virginia the first team in history to win three consecutive games on UNC’s home turf.
In addition to playing the fifth-ranked Tar Heels a week ago, the Cavaliers must face third-ranked Florida State Sunday, making the matchup with the Hurricanes a dangerous one. Although Miami (8-7-1, 3-7-1 ACC) has struggled of late, it has shown sparks of brilliance throughout the season, including a shut out of a Notre Dame team that took Virginia to double overtime just two weeks ago.
But the Cavaliers would not fall into the trap of overlooking the Hurricanes, especially with the opportunity to rewrite the record books on the line. Virginia played with a purpose from the opening kick, thirsty for the chance to put its stamp on school history.
“Today before the game we knew that tonight we wanted to make history,” junior midfielder Morgan Brian said. “It wasn’t really one of our goals at the beginning of the season, but we do take pride in it.”
The Cavaliers dominated the pace of play in the first half and routinely peppered the Hurricane keeper with shots. The Hurricanes could not find an answer to the continuing attack and were rarely able to truly possess the ball in Virginia’s half. Despite the metaphorically tilted pitch, Virginia had a difficult time converting its numerous chances into goals.
“I thought we did some good things tonight, but we certainly left some goals on the field,” coach Steve Swanson said. “We created some good chances, but we just didn’t finish as well as we would’ve liked to.”
It was not until the 24th minute that the Cavaliers were able to find the back of the net, with Brian cleverly staying onside to take advantage of a well placed through ball from sophomore midfielder Emily Sonnett. Brian then chipped the ball over the charging keeper to tally her 10th goal of the season.
“I was just looking down the line to make sure I stayed even with the last defender, and Sonnett played me a great ball,” Brian said. “I saw the keeper come out, so I decided to beat her and the ball went in.”
Just six minutes later, senior defender Molly Menchel doubled the lead with her fifth goal of the season. The senior used her off foot to hammer a one-timer inside the far post off a cross from freshman forward Alexis Shaffer, giving Virginia the 2-0 lead that it took into halftime.
“Molly Menchel’s goal was fantastic,” Swanson said. “There’s never a wrong foot to use.”
The Hurricanes were unable to make any meaningful adjustments during the intermission, and Virginia continued to pour it on. As in the first half, Miami was rarely able to enter Cavalier territory and never threatened freshman goalkeeper Morgan Stearns.
The Cavaliers continued to rack up shots, earning 16 in the second half, but only managed to secure two goals. The Hurricanes recorded their first shot of the match with 21 minutes left to play, immediately followed by leading scorer sophomore forward Makenzy Doniak’s left footed blast from 18 yards out that the Miami keeper had no chance to stop.
Following the Doniak strike, Virginia continued to put pressure on Miami and was deep in the attacking third for most of the remainder of the game. With a little less than two minutes to play, senior forward Amber Fry recorded her second goal of the season with an easy tap-in goal after precise passing from the freshman forward pair of Shaffer and Morgan Reuther got her in behind the keeper.
“Tonight we did play some pretty good offense,” Brian said. “We moved the ball well, which is good to see.”
The Cavaliers allowed the Hurricanes just three shots, only one of which was on frame. An instrumental part of Virginia’s win streak has been its defense, which has allowed just 96 shots the entire season and allows just .53 goals per game. The potent Cavalier offense has amassed 374 shots and scores 3.29 goals per game. Thursday’s dominating win against Miami was the 11th Virginia shutout of the season, and its fourth in a row.
Virginia will look to continue its record run with a win against No. 3 Florida State Sunday afternoon at Klöckner Stadium.
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