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Cavaliers Now

Virginia Women’s Soccer and Tennessee Fight to a Draw

A much-improved second half carries the Cavaliers to a 1 – 1 tie with the Volunteers.
Val Prochaska|
Addison Halpern Equalizes vs Tennessee
Addison Halpern Equalizes vs Tennessee | Virginia Athletics

It is going to be hard to overstate just how awful Virginia looked for the opening 20 minutes of the game.  A poor Virginia corner in the game’s fourth minute was the prelude to a number of Virginia miscues that resulted in a Tennessee break away for a 1 – 0 Volunteer lead.

I guess the Virginia game plan was to attack the back post, so the corner was passed to Addie Halpern, way outside of the box.  Instead of whipping the ball in, she passed all the way back to midfield to Mackenzie Mize, who played a poor ball to the back foot of Jordyn Hardeman.  Hardeman was slow off the ball and had her pass deflected to Tennessee.  And Mize had made the rookie mistake of moving to support Hardeman instead of staying back as the last defender.  Two passes later Tennessee was off to the races as Taylor Cheatam was off to the races for a 50-yard counter and the 1 – 0 lead.

It could have been so much worse.  Virginia, continuing a three, four year-long ordeal, struggled to break the Tennessee press.  Really, it’s like watching the JV play the ball out of the back against the varsity.  Three minutes later, after a Virginia turnover, Tennessee had another one-v-one with keeper Vicki Safradin, and the ball was pushed just wide right.  Two minutes after that, a Volunteer had her shot lined up, the whole left side of the goal open, and it was deflected off her own teammate.  At the 15’ mark, Tatum Galvin was called for handball that ref generously awarded outside the penalty box.  It was a miss, but it the handball was the result of Virginia’s inability to get the ball out of their own end.

Two minutes later, Tennessee hit the crossbar and then the following shot hit the upright.

It was only the vagaries of fate that kept the score from ballooning to three- or four-nothing in favor of the Volunteers.  Tennessee is going home to the refrain of could’a-should’a-would’a playing in their heads as they had completely exposed Virginia.  Any physical team that can actually hold the balls that they win, and one that presses well is Virginia’s kryptonite.  It would help if Ella Carter would be more assertive and start demanding the ball more from the central defenders.  But she’s fourth year and I’m sure she is who she is.  I also don’t think Hardeman is the answer in the double pivot.  Her talent is apparent, but she may not be up to the task of playing at the speed Power 4 soccer requires.

Virginia finally clawed their way back into the game, beginning at about the 25 minute mark.  Kyra Coopman entered the game at right wing back.  Now, it is going to be fun to watch Carrie Helfrich’s development this year and over the rest of her career.  She is playing with much more confidence and verve out of the back than she did last year as winger, but on this night, Coopman was much more incisive.  On a night when Virginia was struggling to win the tackles, Coopman set the tone winning one 1-v-1 duel after another.  The other change was that Halpern dropped back to defensive mid replacing Hardeman. 

Now Halpern demands the ball, and she got touch after touch after touch, and because her motor is amazing, she was starting possessions and then advancing to finish them.  Halpern started bossing the game.

Eight minutes later, Halpern got some help when Sarah Flammia entered the game.  Flammia was basically unused her first two years in Charlottesville, but she plays soccer very much like big sister Jill, very direct to the goal and maybe even better at turning away from pressure.

The tide had turned and over the last 20 minutes, Virginia was the better team.

Coming out of halftime, and another Steve Swanson miracle pep talk, Virginia was on the front foot immediately.  Almost always, it is Carter who sets the tone.  She touched that ball four times in the first 45 seconds.  Just a little over a minute in, Faith Broering sent in this cross that Halpern headed home, all the while being fouled in the back.  One – all and it was game on with Halpern running the show.  Virginia looked very much like the Virginia of yore, moving the ball and attacking the wide spaces.

Reese Mattern, in what had to be an emotional game for her (she was on this Tennessee team the past two years) came in, and man, does she have a burst.  Both teams had their chances as Virginia would hit the cross bar and Tennessee being Tennessee had a pair of lovely counter-attacks.  The prettiest shot of the game came from Tennessee’s Ines Derrien who drew this simply sublime save from Safradin:

Oh, wait.  There is no clip of this save.  Here’s another running theme for the year: Virginia’s social media is so incredibly lame.  This was a world-class save and there are few female goalies who could have gotten to this shot.  Yet Virginia couldn’t be bothered to clip it. (Lucky for us, Tennessee did!)

This counts as a moral victory for the Hoos.  They gave up the early goal.  They couldn’t break Tennessee’s press in the first 25 minutes and by rights, should have been down at least 3 – 0.  It was a physical game, but Tennessee, as seems the SEC’s wont, committed 14 fouls to Virgina’s five.  But more importantly, this was the game that Addison Halpern put the team on her back.  She’s shown flashes, she was the Gatorade National Player of the Year her senior year in high school after all.  She had scored four goals in Virginia’s first four games.  But this game was different, she was the best player on the pitch by a long shot.  In my season preview I opined that Pearl Cecil had the dawg in her to make this team hers, but she’s away now at the U20 Women’s World Cup.  Halpern’s in Charlottesville.  Small sample size and all, but this looks like Addie Halpern’s team now.

The Verdict:  Swanson has to find a coach who can teach this team how to break the press.  Because if anything, it’s getting worse.  These first 25 minutes, woof.  It was really bad.

Next Up:  Virginia travels to Georgetown on Sunday, September 6th for their last non-conference game of the season.  I don’t believe the game will be streamed, which is a blessing for yours truly as I was going to be out of town anyway.  This is the final tune-up before the Hoos travel to Winston-Salem to take on a very resurgent Wake Forest.

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Published
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 ten 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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