The top-ranked Virginia women’s soccer team is in the midst of a historic season that shows no signs of ending. The Cavaliers are the nation’s only undefeated and untied team and have been the consensus No. 1 team for seven straight weeks. If they defeat Virginia Tech Thursday, they will become the first ACC team since North Carolina in 2006 to finish the season with an unblemished conference record.
At the start of the season, questions clouded Virginia’s future. Although the team was coming off a season in which it won just its second-ever ACC tournament title, the Cavaliers lost 20-goal scorer Caroline Miller — who now plays for the National Women Soccer League’s Washington Spirit — among several other key contributors.
Before official competition even commenced, however, coach Steve Swanson knew he had something special brewing in Charlottesville.
“Our spring schedule was awfully good because we got to go over to England and play several professional teams over there, and I think because of that trip and the rest of our spring schedule, we were a little bit further along than we had been in past years,” Swanson said.
The Cavaliers reduced a slew of formidable foes on their early season schedule to rubble. Against top-10 adversaries Santa Clara and Penn State, Virginia triumphed 4-0 and 5-1, respectively.
“The games at the beginning of the season that led to up to ACC play were against some really good teams,” Swanson said. “That helped us prepare for what we knew was going to be a very difficult conference schedule.”
Entering conference play, the Cavaliers were 6-0 with a scoring differential of 25-3 and two tournament victories — the Klöckner Classic and the Virginia Nike Soccer Classic — under their belt. Still, the squad understood that to surpass or even replicate the previous year’s level of success, it would have to continue to raise its level of play.
Virginia did just that, and rolled into ACC play like an unstoppable freight train, defeating Syracuse 3-0 in its first match as a member of the conference. But all of the team’s victories had come within the friendly confines of Klöckner Stadium to that point and it was unclear how the team would react in its first trip to a hostile environment.
Again, the players answered the call. In a memorable road debut, the Cavaliers showed that they could play from behind when they came back to notch the school’s first ever victory playing at Boston College — a game that also marked the 300th win of Swanson’s career. As an encore, Virginia followed up with two more come-from-behind victories at Pittsburgh and Duke.
“You need to win games on the road in this conference,” Swanson said. “On that first road trip, we came back from behind and that can raise confidence. We’ve found ways to win games because we have different answers to different problems, and that shows the resilience of this team.”
Since the conclusion of the Cavaliers’ first road trip of the season back in late September, they have played eight games, and allowed a goal in only one of them. No. 5 Notre Dame took the Cavaliers to double overtime on an evening in which the pouring rain created a perfect slip and slide for the team. It was not until the 101st minute that junior midfielder Morgan Brian headed home the game winner.
“A highlight of the season for me was definitely the Notre Dame game,” sophomore forward Makenzy Doniak said. “Winning that game in overtime and celebrating in the rain is something I’ll remember about this season.”
Since that double overtime scare, Virginia has ripped off five shutouts in a row while scoring 14 goals. The highlight of the run arrived Oct. 20, when the Cavaliers defeated defending national champion No. 4 North Carolina 2-0 to become the first team ever to win three consecutive games in Chapel Hill.
The season arguably hit its emotional peak Sunday, however, when Virginia defeated No. 3 Florida State 1-0 in overtime. The victory marked the Cavaliers 12th shutout of the season, but more importantly clinched the team’s first-ever ACC regular season title.
“I think it shows that we mean business and our hard work as a team,” Doniak said.
Now, the same Cavaliers that began the season mired by questions now sit as the undisputed best team in the nation. Virginia has amassed 57 goals through its first 18 games this year — 11 more than last year’s ACC championship squad had at this point — and has given up just nine goals. The Cavaliers are the only team in the nation with three double digit goal scorers with Doniak at 13, sophomore forward Brittany Ratcliffe at 11 and Brian at 10.
Yet those impressive numbers fail to highlight the most potent weapon in Virginia’s arsenal: solidarity.
“Our chemistry is a big difference for us this year,” Doniak said. “We were close last year, but this year we hang out all of the time off the field and that translates to our play on the field because we all trust one another.”
The University and the community as a whole have certainly taken notice, as well. At the outset of 2013, the attendance record for women’s soccer at Klöckner Stadium was 2,011. After 2,800 weathered inclement conditions to watch Virginia play Notre Dame Oct. 10, the record was again shattered Sunday when 3,894 spectators were on hand to see Virginia clinch the ACC regular season title.
“It means so much to us that our attendance is growing,” Doniak said. “It gives us a great atmosphere to play in when Klöckner is filled with not only U.Va. students but the whole community. They make us want to perform better; they’re so supportive and I love it.”
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