The Virginia women’s soccer team had a busy weekend, hosting Oklahoma Friday and No. 25 Pepperdine Sunday, both at the No. 3 Cavalier’s (6-0-0) home turf of Klöckner Stadium. The team answered the call and continued its dominant streak in defeating Oklahoma (3-2-1), 3-0, and Pepperdine (4-2-0), 2-0.
In taking on the Sooners, although the score line would suggest differently, the Cavaliers faced their first true test of the season.
Thanks to two quick goals in the opening minutes of the game, the Cavaliers secured a comfortable lead and played their game more freely.
The breakthrough came in the ninth minute when junior forward Veronica Latsko chased down a lovely long ball and then slotted it in right over the keeper to open the scoring.
The Cavaliers didn’t wait to follow up on their early goal, as in the 11th minute, senior midfielder Alexis Shaffer latched onto a pass from junior defender Megan Reid and fired it into the net from 15 yards out to put the Cavaliers up 2-0 early in the game.
Oklahoma tested the Virginia defense on the day with the Sooners putting up eight shots compared to the Cavaliers’ 13. The Sooners also were one of the first teams to test senior goalkeeper Morgan Stearns, forcing her to make four saves in order to preserve the team’s shutout streak.
In the end, an own-goal by Oklahoma in the 86th minute proved to be the dagger for the Sooners, as the Cavaliers emerged with an impressive 3-0 victory over a quality opponent.
Against Pepperdine, the Cavaliers took on their first ranked team of the season and stood up to the test with relative ease.
The Cavaliers’ first goal came in the 37th minute when senior forward Morgan Reuther scored a smooth header off of a cross and was rocketed into the box by senior midfielder Meghan Cox.
“It was right off my head,” Reuther said. “It was a great ball, so my teammates just made it easy for me to guide it into the net.”
The second goal game after the half in the 54th minute when freshman forward Alissa Gorzak scored her first career goal off of a nice through ball that allowed her move in towards goal and calmly slot the ball into the goal from a tight angle.
Coach Steve Swanson was effusive in praising his team, as the streak of shutting out opponents is really something at which to marvel.
“Obviously when we’re keeping clean sheets it's a good thing,” he said. “More importantly to me is our players are playing better…some of our defenders are playing better at the back, specifically Megan Reid, [senior defender] Kristen McNabb…they’ve been injured over the summer so to get them in now I think they’re starting to come on even more and that's making a difference for us. But the depth we’ve had back there…[freshman defender] Phoebe McClernon has done a real nice job and Morgan Stearns is playing well in goal.”
Stearns has been commanding the goal all season and her and her defense have set lofty goals for the season going forward.
“We pride ourselves on having a very strong defense,” Stearns said. “We have a goal of 10 goals or less that we’re trying to concede all year… that’s a very lofty goal, but we’re sticking to it and working every day on being tight and making sure there’s no space between the lines.”
While such a goal appears nearly unattainable, just looking at the massive shot disparities in each game this season indicates that this target may not be so far-fetched after all. The Cavaliers outshot the Waves, 21-2, and dominated possession throughout, giving Pepperdine very limited opportunities on the ball.
“A lot of the reason we don’t give up shots is because we are busy snuffing out opportunities before it even gets to be a chance,” Stearns said.
Swanson highlighted how he is pleased with his team as they’ve been executing his tactics to perfection.
“It was a good team and good weekend for us,” Swanson said. “Obviously the results for us, but even better was the performance and I thought we did a good job keeping the ball. A major part of our defending was just valuing the ball and keeping it so they couldn’t have it.”
There is undoubtedly a lot to like about what the Cavaliers have brought so far this season, and as the team continues to grow under coach Swanson’s guidance, the sky appears to be the limit to what this team can accomplish.
“We have some great experience, and we can only get better with everyone starting to gel together,” Swanson said.
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