Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics
UVA Women's Soccer Yields Late Goal, Plays Syracuse to 2-2 Draw
It has been a less than ideal week for the Virginia women's soccer team.
After suffering a frustrating 1-0 loss on Thursday to No. 3 Florida State in a match in which the Cavaliers outshot the Seminoles 21-6, UVA followed that up with a similarly disappointing result, outshooting the opponent 24-3 only to earn a 2-2 draw against Syracuse on Sunday afternoon at Klockner Stadium.
On Thursday night, the Cavaliers yielded the first and only goal of the match to the Seminoles just 47 seconds in. Virginia experienced some déjà vu on Sunday as a UVA own goal gave Syracuse the lead just one minute and 47 seconds into the match.
Unlike the match against Florida State, however, Virginia managed to deliver a response and then some, scoring twice to take the lead.
In the 24th minute, freshman Maggie Cagle used an excellent dribble move to get into the box from the left wing and flipped a shot past Syracuse goalkeeper Shea Vanderbosch and into the back left corner of the net for her second goal of the season, tying the match at 1-1.
Virginia would outshoot Syracuse 13-1 in the opening period, but Vanderbosch would make four saves in the first half to keep the match tied at one goal apiece at halftime. Vanderbosch finished with nine saves in total, preventing what could have been a bloodbath in favor of the Cavaliers.
In the 63rd minute, the Cavaliers took the lead and again it was a result of a play from Maggie Cagle, who crossed a low pass into the box and found the right foot of fellow freshman Jill Flammia. Vanderbosch got a piece of Flammia's shot, but the ball still found its way across the goal line to put UVA up 2-1.
Virginia continued to have way more scoring opportunities than Syracuse but the Cavaliers failed to convert any of them and the lead stayed at just one goal, which came back to haunt them.
With less than two minutes to play, UVA turned the ball over deep in its own zone and Syracuse's Pauline Machtens put a shot on goal that was saved by Cayla White, but the rebound came right to Koby Commandant, who easily put it in the back of the net for the equalizer.
Neither team scored in the remaining moments and UVA had to settle for a frustrating 2-2 draw. Virginia is still undefeated against Syracuse all-time, leading 7-0-1, but this is the first time the Cavaliers haven't beaten the Orange outright.
UVA has outshot its opponents 45-9 in the last two matches but the results of those two matches were a loss and a draw.
Virginia (10-2-2, 3-2-1 ACC) will have to rediscover its winning ways soon as the Cavaliers head down to Blacksburg on Thursday at 8pm to take on Virginia Tech in the Commonwealth Clash.
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