Virginia Women’s Soccer Knocks off #9 Penn State

Maggie Cagle scored in the game’s first 90 seconds, and it was enough to secure the 1 – 0 victory.

Maggie Cagle in full flight vs Penn State | Virginia Sports

Before the game, I was texting with my editor, Jackson Caudell, and this is what I wrote:

I don't think we're a top 20 team. We struggle defensively against the press, and offensively we can’t score. Our team speed is average at best. We'll have to see how fast Penn State is and how well they press.

The first concern remains an issue.  As for handling the high press, Penn State didn’t try it for long, and while they did turn the tables a bit when they pressed late in the first half, the Virginia defense accounted themselves well.

As for the game itself, the game was delayed 40 minutes due to rain.  It had been an early start to begin with – 6:00pm versus the more standard 7:00 kickoff – and one thing I have learned is that athletes are creatures of habit.  One team is going to handle the 40 minute delay better, that sitting around the locker room, ready to play, but just staring at each other.  It can feel interminable. 

On this day, Virginia head coach Steve Swanson won the battle of the locker room because the women came out focused while Penn State came out flat.  Maggie Cagle scored in the second minute, even before Penn State had even completed a single pass.

Freshman Carrie Helfrich, starting her first collegiate game, sent a nice cross into the box which fizzed out to Cagle.  Cagle made a lovely turn on the ball, taking the ball to her right, where she coolly slotted the ball into the bottom left of the PSU goal.

Helfrich with the service into the box and Cagle with the finish!

Hoos up 1-0 on Penn State.

Watch on ACC Network#GoHoos | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/efcE0g7kMF

— Virginia Women's Soccer (@UVAWomenSoccer) September 4, 2025

That would be all the goals that Virginia needed as Penn State never really mounted a serious goal-scoring opportunity for the entire game.  (For stat nerds, I would estimate Penn State’s xG to be 0.1.  For non-stat nerds, trust me, that’s really bad.)

The Virginia midfield of Lia Godfrey (especially in the first half,) Ella Carter and Addison Halpern bossed the middle of the field making Penn State look less and less like a national title contender with every passing minute.  Godfrey has clearly put last season behind her and she’s looking like one of the best midfielders in the country.  Carter looks better and better on the ball with every passing game.  Halpern, the reigning scholastic player of the year, has not impressed me as a forward: she woefully skied two shots and had a trio of attempts blocked.  While she did draw a wonderful save from PSU’s Mackenzie Gress, she rarely puts the ball on frame.  I am more impressed with Halpern as midfielder though: she reads the game well and she probably fits the Steve-Swanson mold of what an outside midfielder looks like better than anyone on the team.

As the first half ended, Virginia had the one-goal lead and a 7 – 1 shots advantage.  For the game the margin would be even greater at 18 – 4 with six of those shots on goal.  Holding a quality team like Penn State to just four shots is remarkable.  Liv Rademaker and Laney Rouse were constant threats down the flanks and Kiki Maki had her most solid game of the season.  Eight minutes into the second half, Maki made the defensive stop of the season as it looked like Amelia White was about to get onto a lovely through ball with the chance to go one-on-one with Victoria Safradin for the equalizer.  To be honest, I didn’t know if Maki was capable of that kind of stop, but it was a game-winning tackle on her part.

Late in the first half, as the substitutes flooded in on both sides, Penn State was able to press a little more effectively. Maybe it was fresh legs, maybe it was having heard an earful on the sidelines about being more aggressive, but for a 10-minute swing, Penn State got the upper hand, controlling midfield and forcing Virginia to be much more deliberate advancing the ball from the back.  It didn’t do Penn State any good as they created nary a tense moment on the Virginia back line.

In the second half, Ella Carter took over controlling the midfield and Virginia created chance after chance after chance.  The team’s finishing really is poor.  Two Cavaliers blazed shots well over the cross bar, Allie Ross got behind the defense and slipped the ball around the keeper, only to strike the ball so poorly that a defender was able to chase the ball down.  I think Meredith McDermott, who plays center-forward, has lost a step.  She was always more quick than blazing fast, but she no longer has the ability to separate.  If she’s playing through a knock, we’ll never know because Swanson treats injury information like they are state secrets.

Virginia should have put two or three more goals into the back of the net.  They couldn’t, and I was readying my football-team-that-marches-up-and-down-the-field-but-fails-to score analogy.  Turns out it wasn’t needed.  Virginia ran a very good Penn State team with Carter, Godfrey and Rademaker all looking like they belong on the All-ACC team.  Which is crucial because ACC play begins next week when the #3 Duke Blue Devils come to Charlottesville.

Missing Players:  For the first time all season, I saw Laughlin Ryan on the sideline.  Over the weekend, Swanson acknowledged that Ryan was close to returning.  I still haven’t seen Aniyah Collier on the bench.  Still don’t know what’s happened to her.

Edit: Found her. She's in the center. With the crutches.

Aniyah Collier has been spotted. Laughlin Ryan is in blue in the lower right. | Virginia Sports

Next Up:  Virginia has a full week off as they face Duke, next Thursday, September 11th at 7:00pm.   The game will be on ACC Network Extra.