Virginia Women’s Soccer Downs Syracuse on Senior Night

Three late goals helped balloon Virginia’s 4 – 0 win over the Orange.

Virginia salutes eight seniors and their families. | Virginia Athletics

It is conceivable that as the women were preparing for this game they might have been aware that the football team was getting slapped around down in Tallahassee.  (If I might be permitted an aside:  who the heck thought it was a good idea to bring Beau Pribula to Charlottesville?  The man quit on his team last year in the Gator Bowl.  Against us!  All the pre-season hype the footballers were getting?  Melting like that man’s commitment to his team.)

Snark aside, the women on this day had a tall order: right the ship, and fast.  Through three ACC games, the Cavaliers had just a single win, against bottom-feeder Miami.  Thankfully, Syracuse was the opponent on the night.  Syracuse, winners of just five ACC games in the past 7+ seasons, was nevertheless touted by the game announcer as more athletic and deeper than in previous seasons.

Couldn’t really tell by the Orange’s performance on the day.  It took Syracuse about four and a half minutes to complete their first pass, by which time Virginia had already taken two shots and won a pair of corners.  It would be 30 minutes before Syracuse even had a run of play decent enough to get the ball into Virginia’s final third.

Virginia scored nine minutes in, off a corner, when Gio Canali met Ella Carter’s service for the first goal.  That was the fourth corner of the game, and all had looked dangerous.  While Sophia Bradley would score a goal that was correctly ruled offsides, the 1 – 0 scoreline remained at the half. 

Virginia dominated the first frame, outshooting Syracuse 15 to zero and having maybe 80% of the possession.  Virginia attacked down both wings, over the top, through the middle and through the air.  I don’t think the Syracuse gameplan was to drop into the very low block, but Virginia pinned them back anyway.   At this point it’s a cat-and-mouse game, and if there was one flaw in how Virginia attacked, it was in a marked lack of patience.  Sometimes you do have to shoot from range, if for no other reason than to draw the defense out.  But a trio of Addison Halpern shots, as well as attempts by Carter and Allie Ross, weak shots all, were taken when there seemed better options closer in.  All were markedly poor.

The second half was sluggish for Virginia as the women labored to move the ball with any pace.  This is Syracuse, and as I’ve said, they’re not to be feared.  Syracuse in the second half got their first corner and their only shot (an attempt from very long range that was probably wide of the six-yard box.)  With just a one-goal lead, it only takes one breakaway, one flukey bounce, and the win could evaporate.  But, say it with me, this is Syracuse, and there would be no breakaway and they couldn’t force the flukey result.  The second half was pretty boring and I was tempted to go do the dishes at one point.

But soccer is a funny game, and the dam finally broke at the 80-minute mark when Addie Halpern stole the ball well inside her half.  As soon as she started dribbling upfield, Aniyah Collier simply exploded into space and Halpern made the easy pass to Collier.  Collier was one-on-one with the keeper and converted nicely into the side netting.  2 – 0 and the women could breathe in relief.

80' | UVA 2, SU 0

Aniyah Collier doubles the lead wiith her strike off the beautiful feed from Addison Halpern.

📺 ACCNX#GoHoos | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/qcB6r1UM0P

— Virginia Women's Soccer (@UVAWomenSoccer) October 4, 2026

Then, Jordyn Hardeman took over.  She got a nice ball in the middle third, drove forward and unleashed a corker with her left foot.  This is lovely.  Shots don’t get much better than this. 

84' | UVA 3, SU 0

Jordyn Hardeman bends it with the left foot from range!#GoHoos | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/OCxzjcwM3Y

— Virginia Women's Soccer (@UVAWomenSoccer) October 4, 2026

With five minutes remaining, a Steve Swanson challenge won the Cavaliers a penalty kick.  Halpern, who scored Virginia’s lone goal against UNC from the spot was off, so Hardeman grabbed the ball early, and moved to the penalty spot.  She hit a rocket into the left corner.  Seriously, the pros couldn’t have saved that shot.

Hardeman got her brace, Virginia scored three goals in five minutes, and the Cavaliers walked away with a 4 – 0 scoreline that belied the team’s struggles to score for over 80 minutes.

Injury Watch:  Collier was hurt on her goal.  She lay face down for several seconds after the goal and when she did get up, teammates were helping her walk.  When the trainer finally got to Collier, she went down before limping off on her own power.  After the game, I did not see Collier amongst the team, and as team’s lead dancer, she’s usually easy to find.

Senior Night:  Due to the vagaries of the schedule, this was Virginia’s last home game on a weekend for the rest of the season, so the Cavaliers celebrated Senior Night in the first week of October.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it, celebrating your seniors when the season is not even half way through.  Though there have been some notable exceptions (Kehei Clark returned to the fold for a fifth season after his senior night,) this means that this is the last year for Ella Carter and Vickie Safradin, both of whom could have had a fifth year under the new Five-in-Five guidelines.  Aniyah Collier was also celebrated, and after two red-shirt years, she had two more years.  I’ll talk more about our seniors in my season-ending postmortem.

Next Up:  Virginia travels to South Bend to take on Notre Dame this Thursday, October 8th at 7:00pm.  The match will be seen on the ACC Network.