Cavaliers Now

Virginia Women’s Soccer Controls Xavier In 3-0 Victory

Virginia takes down the Big East’s Xavier handily, winning 3 – 0.
Val Prochaska|
Virginia's Kiki Maki Celebrates Allie Ross's opening goal.
Virginia's Kiki Maki Celebrates Allie Ross's opening goal. | Virginia Athletics

Following a dour performance at West Virginia last week, the Virginia Cavaliers returned to the friendly confines of Klöckner Stadium as the opening act of a men’s/women’s double-header.  While the defense is still showing too many signs of susceptibility trying to play the ball out of the back, the Xavier Musketeers were completely unable to press Virginia, and the Cavaliers bossed a six-person-, five, and four-person midfield all game.

Virginia had three lovely shots/combinations in the game’s opening 10 minutes.  Lia Godfrey finally looked like the three-time All-American she is, and she opened the scoring when she took a free kick, drove the ball to the back of the line to Tatum Galvin, who headed the ball back towards goal, where an opportunistic Allie Ross slipped the ball into the back of the net.  After a very lengthy video review, the goal was upheld, and Virginia took a lead that she wouldn’t relinquish.

Freshman Pearl Cecil, who has just been called up to the US Women’s U17 team for a pair of friendlies this fall, scored the second goal.  Sophia Bradley got the ball on the right, drove baseline, sliced the ball across the goal, where the keeper failed to hold onto the ball, and Cecil powered home the rebound.

The final goal was from a Lia Godfrey free kick, maybe 25 yards out.  The ball, curling away from the keeper, was pretty much unstoppable.

Going up three goals with 25 minutes remaining, it is natural for the team in the lead to take their foot off the gas a bit.  Xavier played their way back into the game, but to be frank, they looked pretty toothless for a team that won 15 games last year and which is widely expected to secure an NCAA at-large bid this season.

With 13 minutes remaining, Xavier forced this save out of keeper Viki Safradan.  She didn’t do a great job on the first shot, palming the ball out, but her reaction time for the second save was fantastic. 

I’ve been impressed with Safradin’s growth, just over these past two games.  She is much more commanding in the box, and her distribution, which was a definite weakness in her game last season, is, at the very least, no longer a concern.  It is clear that this has been a point of interest in her game this offseason.  It’s going to have to be because the women still look very shaky playing the ball out of the back.  Xavier didn’t challenge particularly well, and there were still too many errant passes and defenders getting picked off in possession.

One counterbalance to these travails was the play of defensive midfielder Ella Carter.  She deputized for Alexis Theoret for about six games last year, and she’s the heir apparent this year, and she played her best game of her still-young career.  She wasn’t under much pressure  -- as I’ve said, Xavier was toothless in defense – but she was operating in a crowded midfield.  She looked calm, and she played with poise.

Also impressing (in still limited minutes) were freshmen Liv Rademaker, who is very good in the future, and Carrie Helfrich who is very direct and is an improved version of Sophia Bradley.  We also saw for the first time this season, Jordyn Hardeman, the number four recruit in the country this year, who filled in for Ella Carter in the defensive midfield role.

One strange sighting was Maya Carter, who came in and played in the center of defense, pushing Tatum Galvin out wide.  Carter has been a largely ineffective forward off the bench, and this may be a better role for her going forward.  Carter did play some midfield last year, what with Godfrey still at 60%, Jill Flammia injured, and Yuna McCormack away playing at the U20 World Cup.  I’ll be interested in seeing how she does against higher-quality forwards than Xavier possesses.

In terms of absences, Jill Flammia did not play, and while her absence was noted by the game announcers, they offered no explanation.  On the season, Laughlin Ryan has not yet played.  She was an inspirational story last year, coming back after three straight season-ending injuries.  Also missing is Aniyah Collier who missed all of last season with injury.  I haven’t even seen her on the sidelines. She played outside defender two years ago, but this year she is listed at a forward.  She’s got good speed, and frankly, this team is going to need help from every possible avenue.  The 3 – 0 scorelines flatters the offense, to be frank.  Maggie Cagle, Meredith McDermott and Bradley all showed today that they are NOT going to be high volume scorers.  A lot has to go right for one of that trio to score.  They are just not clinical finishers.

But a win is a win is a win, and last year Xavier was a top–35 team.  The Cavs had to earn this win.  Starting off 2 – 0, with wins against NCAA-tourney caliber teams, is a much better start than last year.  There’s a lot of soccer left to play this year.

Nex Up:  Virginia travels to Lynchburg to take on Liberty on Sunday, August 24th.  Gametime is 1pm and the game is on ESPN+.

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Val Prochaska
VAL PROCHASKA

Val graduated from the University of Virginia in the last millennium, back when writing one's senior thesis by hand was still a thing. He is a lifelong fan of the ACC, having chosen the Tobacco Road conference ahead of the Big East. Again, when that was still a thing. Val has covered Virginia men's basketball for nine years, first with HoosPlace and then with StreakingTheLawn, before joining us here at Virginia Cavaliers on SI in August of 2023, continuing to cover UVA men's basketball and also writing about women's soccer and women's basketball.

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