UVA women's soccer wins Louisville 2-0

After a subpar effort against Notre Dame resulted in their first loss of the season, the Virginia Cavaliers returned to friendly confines at Kleckner Stadium in an attempt to get back on track. Virginia never lost to the Cardinals, so no more opponents would have been picked. And after a rare loss, UVA quickly announced his 61-8-13 record to coach Steve Swanson after the loss. So the signs didn’t bode well for Louisville.

The last three matches have been interesting for Futh. A draw with VCU kicked off his three-game stretch in which Virginia struggled to maintain its usual dominance in midfield. The next game up was a stunning second-half comeback from his 2-0 against Tarr his heels. A great, great win indeed, but the fact that a woman went off the pitch in the first half must not be hidden, and in the middle of the week UVA were overwhelmed by Notre Dame’s fighting his Irish, going 1-0. was defeated. Again, Virginia had no control of the midfield.

Against Louisville, Swanson made some changes. He brought Maggie Cagle back into the starting lineup. He’s been going back and forth all season about who kicks him in the corner, but today it was Alexis Theoret. Cagle and Alexa Spaansta flipped their wings. This is not uncommon, but switching sides after 10 minutes is uncommon. At one point Rainie Rouse and Samar Guidry appeared to have swapped sides as well, which was very unusual, but how they positioned themselves for a corner kick. Based on this, it may have happened.

But when the Cavaliers had possession at the half, Swanson brought Theoretto (usually a right midfielder) back to center of defense and Lacy McCormack on the outside to make up for Rebecca Jarrett’s loss of speed on the wing. moved to This effectively pushed Rainie Rouse into midfield. I don’t know if Rouse has actually gotten faster, but she’s learned how to use her speed more effectively on the sides and is more effective on offense this year.

This was an important starting point for a team that has lined up in a fairly vanilla 4-3-3 formation for at least the past five or six years. Unfortunately, the results were mixed at best. For the fourth straight game, Virginia struggled to control the midfield against a Louisville team in the middle of a very average table. Teams are not crisp against the ball. Twice in his first 20 minutes of the game, the announcer said: Executions were not. ’ I had to agree with him.

An iconic play of the first half was a superb Maggie Cagle through ball that split the Louisville backline well ahead of Hayley Hopkins. At full sprint, she stepped in the same stride as the Louisville defender and her second touch on the ball was so heavy that it rolled to the keeper before Hopkins took the shot. It wasn’t the touch of a woman who is approaching a two-time All-American and a 50 career goal.

Clouds started to roll in at halftime and rain started to fall within 15 minutes of the restart. It seemed like a perfect metaphor. Whatever halftime talk Swanson tried to give the team had no effect like last weekend’s in North Carolina.

In the 73rd minute, the game changed as Hopkins was brought down 10 yards outside the box. Only five minutes before he was replaced by Godfrey in his rear, Alexis stepped up in his Theoretto. I think Theorette is a great deadball her striker and I was hoping she would take every corner this season. I was actually rooting for Godfrey’s substitution in my heart, and Theoret would prove me right. didn’t give a chance to

The game is practically over at that point. Swanson called the starters back and won the game. With eight minutes remaining, Talia Staude took a free-kick from 10 yards deeper than Theoretto. She found Hopkins and it was as if the scrum had split violently like the Red Sea. Hopkins isolated himself one-on-one with a defender, burying the ball deep in the net with a commanding header.it was her 8^th This season’s goals and 50^th of her career.

All the fight was gone from the Cardinals, with the Wahoos playing mostly to keep the game cool.

to the next: Virginia travels to Durham to face the Duke Blue Devils this Friday. The match time is 7pm and the match will be broadcast on ACCN Extra.