University of Virginia -- The 2019 Thread

Virginia 2
Minnesota 0

And by the sounds of it, the Virginia field hockey team is.winning as well.

Ashlynn Serepca, who 007 tells me was suffering with a loss of confidence, gets the game winner.

 

Hoos Place writeup: https://hoosplace.com/content.php?inc=2019090802

Highlights to come Monday.

Or, if you don't want to leave this page:

Stout Minnesota Defense Wishes Game Lasted for Just 70 Minutes

Minnesota didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for the offensive onslaught that has been the Virginia offense this season, and they traversed half the continent to come to Klöckner, but the Gophers have already logged a lot of mile this young season. The word is officially out on the brilliance of Diana Ordonez and Becca Jarrett and Minnesota may have written the blueprint that others will use to contain them.

Virginia 2
Minnesota 0

Every team on our schedule, short of Penn State and Florida State, is going to defend first, attack second. One marker of a “defensive shell” is when the other team marks your guys on their goal kicks and keeper clearances. Yep, that was a big part of Minnesota’s game plan.

Minnesota came out in a very disciplined 4-2-3-1, frequently referred to as the Christmas Tree formation, with two defenders on Ordonez at all times. The right (nominal) attacking mid of the 3 in the 4-2-3-1 was designated as a spy to stop center back Pheobe McClernon’s forays forward. Most teams have opted to allow McClernon a great deal of space as she brings the ball forward, but Minnesota was committed to stopping it. Out on the wing, the defender guarding Jarrett gave her a lot of space and committed to staying in front of her, allowing Jarrett to dribble right at her. Alas, this is something Jarrett does not do well. The plan on the left wing was to allow their superb right back, Nikki Albrecht, to handle Alexa Spaanstra, Courtney Petersen and Alissa Grozak on her own. She was phenomenal and Spaanstra never once beat her to the end line, which has been a major component of the Cavalier offense to date.

For the second time this season – all games we’ve won – an opposing defender has been my choice for Player of the Match. It won’t be the last time. We’re going to force a lot of defenders into playing their best game of the season.

Also a marker for defensive success is the number of blocks the defenders make on our shots, and the Gophers had well over 8 on the game (for some reason I stopped counting at 7.) Sometimes a block means that a defender is willing to throw her body into the ball, but in a collective effort on this day, it meant that the defenders were able to stay between the ball and goal and that’s going to make for a long day for the offense.

The game plan worked to perfection in the first half. Toward the end of the half I noticed more Cavaliers, standing around, shaking their heads and pointing fingers at their teammates. Now, they weren’t fighting or squabbling per se – they haven’t lost yet this year, or suffered any setbacks yet, and this is a close squad that Coach Steve Swanson has assembled – but it was telling that they were getting frustrated. They would go into the half tied and scoreless, a first for the season, and I thought that maybe this would be a good test of their resilience.

The most memorable highlight of the first half was a near miss from Spaanstra in the 35th minute that looked to all of us in the stands that it was a goal. We all celebrated, until we noticed that the players on the field were not celebrating.

The second half started just as slowly as the first, only with the notable absence of McClernon. It was the first time I haven’t seen Phoebe on the field for kick off. Swanson is moving McClernon around this year, usually out to the right back position so that he can get freshman defender Talia Staude into the lineup. On one hand this seems reasonable because McClernon is gifted and versatile, but on the other, it seems strange to me to move your best player, especially when said player plays center back, only the most important position on the field.

This was a tough game for Ordonez as she had one defender draped on her back all game. At times it was like she was a back-to-the-basket center in basketball and she was in the trenches. And the referee allowed play like it was a game in the paint, with lots of holding – at least twice the defender was seen grabbing and pulling on Ordonez’ jersey.

In the 63rd minute, Spaanstra was fouled close to the box. The game to this point had all the hallmarks of a game destined for overtime. Swanson has utilized several designed plays on set pieces from this range over the past two years, and the moment screamed for just such a moment of brilliance. Maybe Swanson wanted to see just what kind of magic Ordonez could create from this dead ball situation, but it was not to be as she hit the ball with probably her worst touch of the season and skied the ball over the backstop netting.

Four minutes later, Sydney Zandi had a shot that, again to those of us in the stands, looked like it was going in easily, only to be blocked off the line. It just looked like it was going to be one of those days.

Then in the 78th minute, Ashlynn Serepca, got the ball, carved out some space and made her best Alexa Spaanstra imitation with the biggest goal of her career: a shot to the top right corner that hit the crossbar and bounced down a foot beyond the end line. This has to be huge confidence boost for Serepca. She came to UVa in the same vaunted recruiting class that included Claire Constant, Jarrett and Spaanstra, rated out of high school almost on par with Spaanstra. And yet while the other three have nailed down starting slots – Spaanstra since day one – Serepca has had to float between the forward line and defense. It had to have been tough on the ego. But for this day, at least, she’s the game winner.

Five minutes, as is Virginia’s wont, a second goal came, again from long distance, from the person of Meg McCool. Last year, in a full season, McCool scored nine goals. This year in just six games, she has amassed five. If it weren’t for blaze that has been Ordonez, McCool would be the team’s leading scorer. It was a fine finish and punished a Gopher defense that lost some focus when Ordonez sat down.


Basketball Note: Men’s basketball walk-on and reigning national champion, Austin Katstra, is a women’s soccer fan. I have been to two games and seen him there both times, and he was caught on camera for game that I wasn’t. Either that, or he’s sweet on one of the women.

Pre Game Note: One of the cultural idiosyncrasies of soccer is the age-old practice of having the starting lineups walking out to midfield accompanied, often hand in hand, with young kids, say 8 or 9 year olds. I don’t know how long this has been a part of the college game, but we’re doing it. I have to say, it was a treat watching keeper Laurel Ivory with her two girls. I’m sure everyone else on both teams were nice and friendly to the girls, but Ivory was actively talking to and engaging with the girls.

Then after the starting lineup announcement the team was heading back to the bench and the starters were given a t-shirt to throw into the crowd. Most casually tossed the shirts a couple of rows into the stands, many times aiming for a kid, but Meg McCool has a canon for an arm: she tossed her shirt to the last row before the reserved seating. She was also well on the pitch when she threw it.

 

Virginia v Minnesota highlights:

 

It was just about the only time that happened. Good CFs have to be able to make the defense pay for the error. She did then. Against Minnesota, she flubbed her two chances.

 

True.

But that's true for most center forwards. They need to be fed.

 

Virginia thrashed William and Mary last night pretty easily, 8 - 1. Becca Jarrett had a pair within 8 minutes, and save for a very nice goal by Renee Kohler of W&M, it was mostly an extended scrimmage ahead of Penn State on Sunday.

HoosPlace writeup: https://hoosplace.com/content.php?inc=2019091302

I'll be previewing the beginning of ACC play with a mailbag, if anyone has questions/thoughts/imponderables, let me know.


On this season, Virginia has already defeated Liberty 6 – 1 and Liberty in turn has already defeated William and Mary 4 – 2. If you believe in the transitive property of common games, a comfortable win was forecast for Virginia against the visiting Tribe from W & M. How do you think that worked out?

Virginia 8
William and Mary 1


The big news for the Cavaliers hit at the beginning of the game with the lineup announcement that freshman star Diana Ordonez and keeper Laurel Ivory were not starting. Watching the game, I did see Ivory on the sideline, wearing warmups and cleats, so I have to presume this was not disciplinary action – it was just a coach choosing to allow his backup keeper some time against a chump team. Maybe Ordonez was there – it was just hard to see in scattered sideline shots and during postgame handshakes – but her complete absence looms large.

Perhaps, it is just gamesmanship heading into the weekend’s clash with #8 Penn State.

In any event, the Cavaliers pounced early as Becca Jarrett had a brace within the first 8 minutes. The first goal came off a lovely cross from new HoosPlace Fave, Taryn Torres, and the second off a muffed handle from the woeful Tribe keeper. Even though the game announcer was doing his level best to present William and Mary as a worthy foe, he did refer to the Tribe, as “The Generals” which only calls to mind the Washington Generals, the longtime patsies for the Harlem Globetrotters. It was worth a chuckle.

And then out of nowhere, Tribe right winger, Renee Kohler, gave William and Mary a reason to cheer with a superb effort in which she left Courtney Petersen flat on her back and Phoebe McClernon sprawling, drilling a long-range shot past back-up keeper Micheala Moran. To leave two premier ACC-caliber defenders in her dust, well, it was just remarkable and it’s the best solo effort that Klöckner Stadium has seen this year. Maybe, as the game announcer hoped, the game would become an even contest.

Nope.

Remember the aforementioned 2 – 4 result versus Liberty? Well, this is not a strong William and Mary team. Their keeper dropped balls all night long and Spaanstra almost scored within a minute of Kohler’s moment of brilliance, again off a keeper muff. William and Mary did try to press up a bit and get out of their defensive shell, but their individual defending all night was shambolic. Which is a British euphemism for really, really bad. For the next goal, Spaanstra got the ball on the edge of the penalty box and she drove to the endline. It’s her signature move. And yet one W&M defender just backed away from her. It was simply bizarre, the kind of move you’d see in a game of 10 year olds. Spaanstra found a streaking Claire Constant who had a pretty open net for the tap in and what ever “balance’ there might have been was over. Over the next 75 minutes, Virginia would pour in five more goals and take over the goalscoring efficiency lead, pacing every team in the country with 4.71 goals per game.

Megan McCool (one), Ash Serepca (two), Sydney Zandi (one) and Torres (one, on a PK) would complete the scoring for the game.

In the second half, Coach Steve Swanson unloaded his bench. It was nice to see Makenna Angotti – little used last year, and presumably the third defensive option until the season-ending injury to Lizzie Sieracki – have her nicest game of her UVa career. She was a transfer last year, and I’ve long thought that the ACC moves too fast for her, but against this William and Mary team, she did find space and she looked assertive moving into offence. Given that she is going to see more meaningful time this year, I hope that the confidence from this game bleeds into the ACC slate.

There were two concerns that did strike me. The first has been a season-long struggle: the through ball behind the defensive line. As teams try to push up and crowd the middle with bodies, there will be more space behind the lines, and in Jarrett and Spaanstra, we have some speed to attack it. We just suck at the driven through ball, and until we can punish other teams for pressing higher on the pitch, we’re going to make the game more difficult for us. The answer: more Rondos drills, Coach Swanson!

My other concern is more of a quibble, really. Since Spaanstra’s wonder strike versus West Virginia, she has been more content (read that: willing to settle) for the long range shot. Yes, being able to strike from distance is important, but not at the expense of trying to build a better attack. It is a balancing act, true, but the past two games it seems Alexa’s erred on too many speculative shots when she is the one player we want moving with the ball at her feet.

Next Up: Penn State at State College. We’ve played our first seven games at home and we’ve got one of the most spacious fields in all of NCAA soccer. One reason I have long suspected for our struggles in the ACC tournament and NCAA tourney is that this team is built to take advantage of Klöckner’s roominess. When we play on smaller pitches, it becomes easier for opponents to clog the middle and slow us down. This Sunday’s game will be a great test of how we handle the challenge of a smaller field.

 

Oh, and I will get around to highlights soon -- just a bad week at work and with family -- so I will post Renee Kohler's goal. She left Petersen on her ass and McClernon sprawling awkwardly.... Breaking the ankles, as it were, of two ACC caliber defenders is a pretty remarkable achievement and it out to be kept for posterity....

 

Yeah, since coaches don't divulge info I'm left to speculate. I saw that Constant was hurt vs W&M but won't know anything til Penn State.

Yeah, I was gonna mention Zandi, but it's been a rough week and I just had to get this one done. I have no idea when I'm going to.get to highlights....

 

So... Penn State has hit a rough patch. Tied a West Virginia team that UVa handled pretty easily and then on Thursday lost to Oklahoma State. Seems like the right time for UVa to be catching PSU.

 

Virginia ran PSU off the pitch in the first half. Penn State tied the.game with 6 minutes left, only for UVa to go.back ahead a minute later.

Virginia was.easily the better team.

 

Hoos Place write up: https://hoosplace.com/content.php?inc=2019091603

Chinese Proverb: May You Live in Interesting Times

This familiar Chinese aphorism is actually a curse, and it came to mind as Penn State made the game interesting late, but the Cavs held on for their 8th straight win in their first "real" test of the season, travelling to Happy Valley to take on the #8 Nittany Lions.

Penn State 1
Virginia 2

The first half may have been the best soccer Virginia has played all season. Penn State is a quality team and yet we ran them all half, never allowing them into the game. At the end of the half, UVa had a 13 – 2 advantage in shots. Although we were missing freshman Diana Ordonez, Meg McCool, for the second straight game in her absence, scored to give Virginia the early lead. The goal was hardly a thing of beauty, but once again Becca Jarrett got to the end line for the cross. McCool is pretty much unmovable inside the six yard box, so all the hapless Lion defender could do is wrestle her to the ground. McCool was the fastest to get up and she had a relatively easy toe poke for the score.

One of the features of the Virginia offense is the extreme wide positioning of our wingers and Jarrett has been steadily improving this positioning as well as her first touch as a winger. Alexa Spaanstra can seemingly get to the end line any time she wants, so the Virginia attack is increasingly built on ground-ball crosses into the box. Fortunately we’ve got a pair of fox-in-the-box poachers in McCool and Ordonez who will be able to force two and three defenders into the six yard box, all of which will open more space at the oh-so-crucial penalty spot.

Once the goal was in hand, the Cavs simply ran the Lions. The ref called for a water break at about the 26 minute mark. I’m not a huge fan of the water break, especially given the (un)limited substitution available in the NCAA game. It effectively turns the game into 4 quarters rather than two halves, and the Lions came out of the water break like a team comes out at half time following a Gipperesque speech from the coach. For about seven minutes they got into the game and managed some possession, but following a long buildup leading to a Courtney Petersen cross, the team switched to pure possession mode and drained all the air out of the game.

The second half started slowly. We’d run the Lions. They were tired. But we were fatigued, too. With the loss of Ordonez (she was walking very gingerly during warmups) and Claire Constant (seen in a boot and on crutches), we’ve lost a lot of the depth that has so characterized Steve Swanson teams. Taryn Torres and Alexa Spaanstra are logging too many minutes, Meg McCool played most of the game, and the back four of Petersen, Talia Staude, Zoe Morse and McClernon played the entire game.

The second half was more of a dogfight than any we’ve been in thus far, which is as it should be: Penn State is the best team we’ve played. But as the fatigue increased across the pitch, so did the fouls and the game became a chippy affair. Spaanstra was literally horsecollared. It was completely deliberate and could easily have been a straight red card. Only no card was given, which was a travesty. It was almost as if Pheobe McClernon took that oversight personally and she took out a couple of Lions, and then when penalized for the tackles, jawed more with the ref than we typically see in the women’s game.

UVa still controlled the bulk of the second half, and while the women didn’t carve out any great chances, they continued to create several half-chances. I was impressed with the Penn State keeper, Katharine Asman, who as a red-shirt freshman should man the sticks for the Lions for next three years. Penn State has their own freshman sensation, Ally Schlegal, who had scored in four straight games, and supposedly the Lions had reigning ACC Player of the Year, Sam Coffey. I say supposedly because the Boston College transfer was completely anonymous. At the 70 minute mark, I wrote in my notebook, “Is Coffey even playing?”

The game got scrappier until the 83rd minute when Courtney Petersen did a barrell roll on a Penn State player in the box. Inexplicably, and inexcusably, the ref waved play on. It was as clear a penalty as I’ve seen. A minute later though, the Lions got a makeup call a couple yards out of the box as Zoe Morse was called for a shove as she went up for a header. As I’ve said, I wondered where Sam Coffey had disappeared to, but she took the free kick with aplomb, playing a perfect low ball into the six yard box where Ally Schlegal made it five goals in five straight matches.

Game on! And the 50 or so travelling Virginia fans were indeed experiencing interesting times.

For all of 26 seconds. Anna Sumpter played a low cross into the six yard box, there was a bit of a scrum, and Sydney Zandi knocked in the winning goal.

2 minutes later, Sam Coffey, possibly energized by her perfect free kick, took an even lovelier corner that found a Lion on the back post. From the stands, it looked like the ball snuck into the net, but to no avail and the Cavaliers escaped with the win. From a game that they had simply dominated for long stretches of time. Soccer, as any sport, for that matter, is a funny game.



With this win, and losses to both UNC and Stanford, UVa should climb to #2 when the polls are released on Tuesday.

 

Oh, and Virginia claimed the top spot in TopDrawer's Top 25.

https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-national-rankings/women

 

I agree. Though I am troubled by the minutes some of the starters are logging, especially after having witnessed Swanson's strong penchant for going 18-19 deep. Staude is incredibly mature and beginning next season will play more minutes than anyone other than the keeper. As 007 said, when Ordonez has played, McCool is shifted out to the wing, and she's just not a wing. She runs hard. Last year I dismissively called her just "a runner". She's a quality striker who is a load inside of the penalty spot. She's just not a wing....