Virginia women’s soccer fell for the third time in a row Friday night in a road game against North Carolina. The No. 19 Cavaliers (8-3-0, 1-3-0 ACC) were coming off a two-game skid during which they were held scoreless, and though Virginia found the net twice against the No. 4 Tar Heels (11-1-0, 4-1-0 ACC), the visitors fell short in a 3-2 defeat.
In correlation with the Cavaliers’ slump, their leading scorer, junior forward Maggie Cagle, had been held scoreless since a Sept. 5 match against VCU. However, Cagle looked lively in the early going Friday, and she was rewarded in the 18th minute following an impressive run.
Cagle drove down the left side of the box, taking on Tar Heel senior defender Trinity Armstrong one-on-one. A quick change of the direction back towards the middle caused Armstrong to clip the back of Cagle’s heel to prevent a clean look at the net, which ultimately backfired as Cagle was awarded a penalty kick for the contact. Cagle cashed in on the chance for her sixth goal of the season, putting Virginia on the board first.
The Cavalier lead did not last long, however, as freshman midfielder Linda Ullmark knocked a shot into the left corner of the net in the 30th minute, marking her first career goal. The equalizer came from a well-placed cross via junior forward Maddie Dahlien, who just rejoined the Tar Heels after playing with Team USA’s U20 team alongside Virginia sophomore midfielder Yuna McCormack.
McCormack did not take long to respond to her national teammate. In the 35th minute, she outraced the North Carolina defense and took a Cagle pass down the left side all the way to the net, where graduate goalkeeper Clare Gagne stood no chance to stop McCormack’s strike, which gave the Cavaliers a 2-1 lead in the 35th minute.
Just as quickly as McCormack answered, the Tar Heels were able to match it when Ullmark sent a through-ball along the right side of the field, and junior forward Kate Faasse caught up to it, allowing her to have a one-on-one opportunity against sophomore goalkeeper Victoria Safradin. Faassee’s goal evened the score once again in the 38th minute, as the Cavaliers and Tar Heels went into halftime knotted up at two goals a piece.
Both teams made adjustments during the break to shore up their defense, as no goals were conceded for nearly 30 minutes after a high-scoring first half. The seal was broken when Ullmark booted in her second goal of the game, which came from just inside the box and landed in the top right corner of the net.
Ullmark’s strike would put North Carolina ahead for good, as the 3-2 score held for the remainder of the game. The freshman’s spectacular performance of two goals and an assist proved to be overwhelming for the Cavalier defense, who perhaps did not expect the scoreless midfielder to be the catalyst of Friday’s scoring attack.
Virginia, having now dropped their last three games, finds itself in an even deeper hole than it entered the game in. The Cavaliers were already on the outside looking in at the six-team ACC Tournament after a 1-2 start in conference play, and this loss figures to drop them even further.
“I’m proud of the way our team competed tonight, but we are all disappointed in the result,” Coach Steve Swanson said. “We need to find ways to win games like these and right now we are doing the opposite.”
On the bright side, however, Virginia played a tight game with the No. 4 ranked team in the country and appears to have found some rhythm on offense, scoring twice after not finding the back of the net in its previous two losses. The Cavaliers will need to combine this with improved defense, as they have now given up three goals in two of their past three games after not conceding more than one in their first eight matches of the season.
The Cavaliers will be back in North Carolina to break the losing streak against Duke Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. The game can be streamed on ACCN.
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