No. 4 Virginia and No. 20 Richmond had, prior to this season, faced off 11 times, the Cavaliers (1-1, 0-0 ACC) holding a 10-1 edge. The Spiders (2-1, 0-0 Atlantic Ten), as if with a vengeance for the previous decade of losses, marched into Klöckner Stadium on Saturday with a fire lit beneath them. They never once trailed in a shocking 13-10 upset victory.
“I rarely try not to say it's an energy difference between two teams, because there's a lot of skill and decision-making and coaching going on,” Coach Lars Tiffany said. “But today, one team showed up here at 11:30 a.m. ready to compete, and unfortunately, it was the other team.”
The lack of energy from Virginia resulted in sloppiness that plagued the Cavaliers for the entirety of the game. Virginia turned the ball over 12 times in the first half, making it difficult to get any sort of rhythm going. Tiffany credited Richmond for its stout defense.
“It felt as if Richmond Spider [defensive midfielders] were always jamming our initial move,” Tiffany said. “Kind of like a good defensive corner off a wide receiver off the line.”
Though the Spider defense performed well in six-on-six sets, many of the Virginia turnovers came from self-inflicted errors. Even when Virginia attackers were able to shake their defenders to create an advantage for the offense, they were prone to sailing passes far over the heads of intended targets out of bounds or even back into their own defensive zone.
Similarly, Virginia lost its fundamentals on ground balls, picking up just 35 total compared to 57 last week against Colgate. Many of these ground balls came at crucial momentum-killing moments, such as on the faceoff following its first goal, or on a potential fast break before halftime that presented a chance to cut the deficit to two goals.
“You could see it right from the opening face off the ground ball, the intensity that the Richmond Spiders played with to get the ball, to get the extra possession,” Tiffany said. “I thought they played fast off the whistles, which is something that is usually our strength”
While it was a brutal upset, Virginia hopes to use it as a learning experience that will be helpful down the road.
“Credit to Richmond, they came out, they played strong, they played aggressive,” graduate midfielder Jack Walshe said. “They kind of played the style ball we want to play — we like to be the aggressors. It'll be a good test for this group, which I think could be good in the long run.”
Walshe, who scored his fourth goal of the season Saturday, was optimistic about how the team would respond to this early season loss.
“There's a lot of unity in that group, very close-knit, a lot of guys stepping up, a lot of guys really trying to earn their spot,” Walshe said. “The group is going to grow.”
The Cavaliers will have to put this loss behind them and learn from it quickly, as they will be back in action Tuesday against High Point. The game will start at 5 p.m. and can be streamed on ACCNX.
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