After a brutal home loss to Saint Joseph's last weekend, No. 4 Virginia field hockey walked back onto Turf Field to host No. 12 Syracuse. In an aggressive game characterized by turnovers and referee reviews, the Cavaliers (11-2, 5-1 ACC) beat out the Orange (10-4, 4-3 ACC) in a sudden death shootout after two periods of overtime.
Virginia's play was anything but consistent — but when it mattered most, Coach Ole Keusgen’s squad sneaked by. While Syracuse had no trouble seamlessly moving the ball between themselves throughout the game, the Cavaliers often found themselves fighting to push forward and struggled because of sluggish reaction times.
The Orange held control of the first quarter early — highlighted by aggressiveness and ferociously keeping the ball away from Virginia. To make matters worse, the Cavaliers were being hard pressed to hold onto possession long enough to make a solid move.
Though both squads pushed each other, neither were truly able to gain much ground into the other’s offensive zone. And while Virginia was successful in holding off Syracuse's attempts to score, the Cavaliers looked less connected than usual. They struggled to prove their dominance with subpar stick work and communication, and the first quarter ended scoreless.
Virginia entered the second quarter with a newfound energy though — after a strong interception by sophomore midfielder Mia Abello, the rest of the team seemed to gain some momentum. The Cavaliers were diving for balls, getting closer to their opponents and threatened the Orange on multiple occasions.
Soon after, senior midfielder Noa Boterman took charge as Virginia pushed smoothly up the field. She took a strong shot at Syracuse's sophomore goalkeeper Louise Pert, but hit the ball just too high of the net.
With just four minutes left in the first half, Orange graduate midfielder Berber Bakermans found open space and shot the ball through a crowd of Virginia defenders — scoring her first goal of the season and leaving the Cavaliers to play catch-up at an 0-1 disadvantage.
Try as it might, Virginia's offense continued to decline for the rest of the second period — even when given a wide open opportunity to score, the Cavaliers' delayed reaction time cost them, and they walked out of the first half empty handed.
But, per usual, Virginia proved that its grit is unlike any other team's, walking back onto the field for the second half with much higher energy than before. Just one minute in, the Cavaliers played four consecutive corners — finding their groove before sophomore striker Emma Watchilla used the resulting play to hammer the ball past Pert, tying up the game 1-1.
After a mellow first half, this goal brought the stands to life. The air was now full of raucous cheers from the home crowd. In addition to the new energy from the Virginia faithful, the Cavaliers went into high gear as the clock ticked on.
Still fighting for an upper hand, Virginia tried to hold onto its defensive fight and feed off of the high energy coming from the bleachers, but still was not able to turn its progress into a go-ahead goal.
That lack of scoring proved costly, as on the Orange's second penalty corner of the third quarter, senior midfielder Willemijn Boogert came charging down the field. She threaded the ball through a crowd of Cavalier defenders to her teammate, graduate defender Bo van Kempen, who then shot the ball hard past sophomore goalkeeper Nilou Lempers' reach — leaving the scoreboard to reach 2-1 at the end of the third period.
Virginia's offense came back in the fourth quarter, and while the two teams continued their back-and-forth routine, the Cavaliers dominated possession and kept the ball on Syracuse's side of the field — putting significant pressure as the final minutes waned.
Still down 2-1, Virginia opted to remove Lempers from the goal with seven minutes and 40 seconds left in the fourth quarter to give its offense an extra push — bringing in Boterman instead as an extra offensive player. Yet even with this advantage, the Cavaliers' movements lacked urgency — while their play had improved over the course of the game, their timing had not picked up and the ever-elusive equalizing goal was nowhere to be found.
The clock continued to tick down as the game heated up — more fouls were being awarded. Players were hitting sticks, colliding with each other more and tripping over one another.
Yet as the game turned messy, Virginia’s renaissance finally arrived. With just over three minutes left on the clock, graduate midfielder Suze Leemans pushed a terrific, hard shot on goal narrowly past Pert —- exactly the type of playing the team has been accustomed to in terms of offensiveness and push — tying the game up 2-2. The final minutes saw no additional scoring, and this hard-fought bout went to overtime.
The game was extended with a ten-minute extra period, where the Cavaliers pushed forward but could not make a move. Playing remained tense, and Virginia started to falter — Syracuse was able to hold possession for the majority of the period, and even though the Cavaliers kept them from shooting, they were unable to get themselves into scoring position.
With slower movements on both sides and multiple substitutions for players with cramped legs, the first overtime period ended without a change, 2-2.
The second and final overtime period played about the same, with consistent tussles for the ball and neither team being able to gain the upper hand — until the final eight seconds.
The Orange had upped their offense in the last minute, and were given a corner. As fans sat waiting with baited breath, Syracuse jumped at the ball and made a fast shot that missed just narrowly above the goal, and the still 2-2 game was sent to shootouts.
The stands were once again loud and full of rallying shouts for Virginia. Fans jumped to their feet cheering as Boterman and sophomore midfielder Mia Abello made their opportunities. After van Kempen and Bakermans scored two shootout points for the Orange, the teams found themselves tied again, and were sent to a sudden death shootout. Whichever team could stop the other from equalizing would instantly win.
Stakes and energies were high as Syracuse made their first shot, followed up by Boterman evening the score for the Cavaliers. The Orange then came up short as Lempers pushed them out of scoring range though, leaving all eyes on Abello as she walked up to the shooting line.
Standing at the line, Abello looked up at Pert, then back down at the ball and shot off like a force of nature — slamming the ball into the back of the goal to cement Virginia's victory.
"I trusted what I did before, what had worked," Abello said. "I took a deep breath … and knew my job, saw the goalie go down, saw an open goal, and finished."
After pushing through such a long, hard game, the Cavaliers know what they were successful in improving after last week and what they have to continue to work on.
"We went into the game saying that we need to have fantastic body language and presence," Head Coach Ole Keusgen said. "Which we did today. We played a great game so we just have to make sure that we put more balls and more corners into the net. That's kind of what threatened the win for today."
The Cavaliers will return to Turf Field for their Senior Day on Sunday, facing off against Miami University of Ohio.
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