No. 3 Virginia Takes Down Defending National Champs Santa Clara 1-0

In the 2020 Women’s College Cup, three of the four teams in the final four were from the ACC: Virginia, Florida State, and North Carolina. The fourth team, Santa Clara, defeated No. 2 UNC in the semifinals 3-1 and then beat No. 1 Florida State in penalty kicks in the championship game.

The one team that did not get a crack at the eventual national champions was Virginia. Well, the Hoos finally got their shot at Santa Clara on Thursday night and they made it count, defeating the No. 9 Broncos 1-0 on Thursday night at the Fairfield by Marriott Invitational on the campus of JMU.

After seventy minutes of scoreless action in which there were just five shots on goal, Virginia finally broke through and scored the first and only goal of the match on a free kick by sophomore midfielder Lia Godfrey.

Sophomore Samar Guidry set up the goal by drawing a foul on a run towards the box on the left side. From the edge of the box, Godfrey sent a curving shot that snuck into the goal just inside the near post to put the Hoos on top. It was Godfrey’s first goal of the season and the second game-winner of her career.

Laurel Ivory and the UVA defense deserve as much credit as Godfrey, as the Cavaliers suppressed a Santa Clara offense that had scored seven goals through the first four games of the season.

The win was the 56th in the career of Ivory, who passed Chantel Jones for second all-time in wins in program history and is behind only Morgan Stearns, who finished her UVA career with 69 wins.

The shooting statistics were nearly even in the match. Virginia had 11 shots and Santa Clara had 10. Four of Santa Clara’s shots were on goal and each were saved by Ivory.

With the win, the third-ranked Cavaliers improve to 5-0 on the season and will face JMU on Sunday at 3pm.