ACC Tournament: Virginia Women’s Soccer Holds off Notre Dame

The Cavaliers exacted their revenge on the Fighting Irish with a 1 – 0 victory in the semi-finals. North Carolina awaits.

Aniyah Collier with the play of the game. | Virginia Athletics

On October 8th, a late Izzy Engle goal gave Notre Dame a 1 – 0 victory over the Cavaliers.  Virginia has won five of the seven games since then (there were also a pair of ties, to Clemson and Duke) and given up just two goals.  The women haven’t conceded a goal in four games.  (Wake Forest’s Valentina Amaral, who was selected as ACC Keeper of the Year, gave up five goals in her last outing against Duke, so yeah, I am a little bitter.)  Virginia has played 18 games now; the defense has given up just 10 goals.  And three of those came in about seven minutes against UNC.  In other words, then, the defense has been lights out.

On this day, the tone was set by Virginia’s wingbacks.  Both UVa and Notre Dame play similar 5 – 3 – 2 formations and the wingback trio of Liv Rademaker, Carrie Helfrich and Kyra Koopman won their battles decisively.  Rademaker is always a threat to score, Helfrich dropped in some sublime crosses, and Koopman is just hard to dribble past.  Notre Dame’s wingbacks were pinned back from the onset and this allowed Virginia to play maybe their best first half of the season.  Possession could easily have been 60 – 40 in Virginia’s favor in the first half.

And so Virginia fans were treated to something they haven’t much of this season, a dominant first half from the Hoos.  I really don’t think it is coincidence, but midfielder Ella Carter had a half’s worth of touches in the first 15 minutes.  Carter simply doesn’t lose the ball and she rarely makes a pass into bad space, space where her teammate will immediately lose the ball.  When Carter gets the ball, Virginia dominates midfield. And ACC coaches finally realized this: after four seasons of first snubbing Alexis Theoret and then last year, Carter, she finally won recognition by being named second team All ACC.  The honor was richly deserved.

The first 15 minutes were all Virginia as they jumped out quickly to a five shots to none advantage.  Notre Dame had a brief flurry activity 25 minutes in, highlighted by a lovely Lily Joseoph shot was just inches wide, and I do mean inches.  But upon viewing the replay, had the shot been on frame, keeper Vicki Safradin had the post covered.

Just as Notre Dame was clawing themselves back into the game, Swanson, with about seventeen minutes remaining, brought in his last subs of the first half.  Aniyah Collier replaced Gio Canali and Sarah Flammia came in for Jordyn Hardeman.  The Flammia sub moves Carter back into the center and the pair restored order.

For her part, Collier made the play of the game.  An overhit ball was sent deep into Notre Dame’s left channel and defender Gracie Milam ran to get it.  Only Collier, who had started a full 10 yards behind Milam, gave chase.  It was an audacious run from Collier.  She had no chance of getting to the ball, yet run she did.  She forced Milam to make a soft pass back to keeper Sonoma Kasica, who panicked when she saw Allie Ross come charging in, and she footed a floater into no-man’s land.  Addie Halpern, who has maybe the best engine in the entire ACC, raced the 10 yards to collect the ball and fire home what would be the game-winner.  Virginia, owner of the weakest press in the ACC, got a ridiculous charge from Collier and just enough pressure from Ross to allow Halpern to work her magic. 

38' | UVA 1, ND 0

Midfielder Addison Halpern draws first blood in the ACC semifinal with the Irish!

📺 ACC Network#GoHoos | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/F1Tjrg6zKY

— Virginia Women's Soccer (@UVAWomenSoccer) November 12, 2026

And you have to feel for Sonoma Kasica.  She’s going to remember that muffed kick for the rest of her life.

But Notre Dame is a team on a mission this year.  They lost in the ACC final to Stanford and then were sent home way too early by Ohio State in the NCAA tournament.  They’ve had a raft of injuries this season, yet still managed to win the ACC regular season.  Virginia surely knew that Notre Dame was going to come out and play a different second half.

Notre Dame’s Izzy Engle has been the best striker in the ACC for the past three years.  She got her chances in the second half, the first which came right at the midpoint.  On a long cross, Engle was exactly where she should have been, on the back post.  She could have (should have) just directed the ball into the back of the net, but she mis-hit the volley.  Then with four and a half minutes remaining, she got behind the line onto a wonderful pass.  She had the entire goal in front of her.  It would have been the equalizer.  Except that Faith Broering made a game-saving tackle from behind to push the ball away.  Faith Broering!  I had missed that she’d even entered the game.  I don’t even know if she’s logged any minutes in ACC play.  And yet here she is, putting in the game-saving tackle of the game.

So the two most important plays of the game were made by Aniyah Collier and Faith Broering.

And that is why we watch sport, because you can never know who the hero is going to be.

Next Up:  Virginia is the ACC final against UNC, who defeated Duke 1 – 0.  The game is Sunday, November 15th.  Kickoff is 12 noon and the game will be on ESPNU.