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Virginia Women’s Soccer Crumbles Late vs Cal, tying 2-2

The Cavaliers played like they were jet-lagged, conceding two late goals after Maggie Cagle and Lia Godfrey had given them an early lead.
Val Prochaska|
Virginia Women’s Soccer Crumbles Late vs Cal, tying 2-2
Virginia Women’s Soccer Crumbles Late vs Cal, tying 2-2 | Virginia Athletic

In the new look ACC, each team is scheduled to make a West Coast swing every other year and this season it is Virginia’s turn to head to California, playing back-to-back games against Cal and Stanford.  Schools on the Atlantic Seaboard and West Coast, both in the ACC and the Big 10, are struggling with the class demands of their students and the athletic demands of their athletes crossing three time zones.  Many teams making the coast-to-coast jaunt are arriving on site a day earlier than normal for their players to acclimate.

For the Cavaliers, they needed another day.

Virginia has come out of the gates explosively all season long, but on this night, the Hoos were sluggish as Cal had earned their first corner kick just two minutes in and before Virginia had completed more than three or four passes.  (Corner kicks are an imperfect measure of, well, anything, but they are a result of defenses under pressure, and for the game, Cal had a 7 – 4 advantage in corners over Virginia.  Their last would be decisive.

For the most part, the first ten minutes were back and forth. Cal right midfielder Elholm Khursand was stronger and faster than anyone Liv Rademaker has defended all season and she was able to keep Rademaker pinned back. 

But twelve minutes in, Maggie Cagle scored on this tap-in for Virginia’s first goal. 

It must have been a point of consideration this week on the training ground, but Virginia on the night would get more quality looks on goal inside the box than they've been accustomed to.  This was the prettiest interchange the Cavs have had all year.

Two minutes later it was Lia Godfrey’s turn as she largely toyed with the Cal midfield on this driving run.

Up 2 – 0 after just 15 minutes and the game looked like Virginia’s for the taking.

Cal had other plans.  Two minutes later, following another Cal corner, Miriam Hils struck a lovely volley from the top of the box.   It was hard to tell if keeper Victoria Safradin got fingers on the ball, but the ball struck the crossbar and bounced down on the line before getting cleared away.

(The ACC Network feel asleep at the wheel for this game.  There was just one camera, and no replays for the game.  Interestingly, the game clock started at 0:00 minutes and counted up to 45, which is the norm for world soccer.)

Game on.

Virginia’s combination play in the box would continue to be a welcome improvement in their attack as the Cavaliers found both Addison Halpern and Allie Ross for 1-v-1s inside the six-yard box, only for Cal keeper Teagan Wy to make huge saves to keep the game close.  Meredith McDermott had a pair of one-on-one breakaways in the second half that she couldn’t convert as Wy again loomed large. 

Poor finishing from players not named Maggie Cagle and Lia Godfrey has been a problem all season for Virginia, and had any of these four chances been converted, I’d be writing a different game report.

It is time for head coach Steve Swanson to audition someone else as central striker, be it Allie Ross, who is also a passable aerial target, or even Sophia Bradley, who returned to the lineup after missing three games.  Swanson is going to get his 500th career win in a couple of games, yet he has never won a College Cup.  This group could do it, but they are playing at a disadvantage with such a hole at the center of attack.  For the game, Halpern played more minutes than Cagle or Godfrey and that is just not a winning distribution of playing time.

For most of the second half, Cal refused to go away.  The cross bar saved Virginia a second time, but it looked like Virginia was going to weather the Cal storm despite the worst games of the year from Virginia’s central defensive trio.  Ella Carter was strangely ineffective as defenders Kiki Maki and Tatum Galvin often opted to go long with their passes, usually just hoofing to awaiting Cal defenders.

With seven minutes remaining, off another Cal corner, in the scrum to clear the ball, Lia Godfrey was called for handball.  Lumi Kostmayer sent Safradin the wrong way and it was 2 – 1.

Two minutes later Soleil Dimry hit this wonder shot and Virginia lost the win. 

An absurd number of goals are scored in the game’s final five minutes.  It could be fatigue or lack of focus, but this is now two games in a row that Virginia has faded down the stretch after taking 2 – 0 leads.  Against middling ACC teams.

The women are halfway through their ACC slate and are still well-positioned to make the ACC tournament after two years in the wilderness.   We’ll learn a lot about the team over the next two weeks.

Next Up:  For the good news/bad news file, Virginia gets a chance to right the ship and secure their #1 ranking when they travel to Palo Alto to take on #3 Stanford on Sunday.   Game time is 4:00pm and the game is on ACC Network Extra.

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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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