The top-ranked Virginia women’s soccer team set a school record with its 17th consecutive win, downing Miami 4-0 Thursday night in front of 1,489 fans at Klöckner Stadium. The Cavaliers (17-0, 11-0 ACC) used a pair of goals in each half to down the Hurricanes, who fell to 8-7-1 (3-7-1 ACC).
The Cavalier victory set up a showdown with No. 3 Florida State (14-0-3, 9-0-2 ACC) on Sunday, which will be a matchup of the nation’s only two remaining unbeaten squads.
Virginia had four goal-scorers on Thursday, with junior Morgan Brian (St. Simons Island, Ga.), senior Molly Menchel (Alexandria, Va.), sophomore Makenzy Doniak (Chino Hills, Calif.) and senior Amber Fry (Northfield, Ill.) finding the back of the net. In addition, sophomore Emily Sonnett (Marietta, Ga.) and first-year Alexis Shaffer (Cary, N.C.) each had a pair of assists.
“I thought we did some good things tonight,” said head coach Steve Swanson. “We probably left some goals out there and I thought we let Miami hang around in the game a little too long. At times we moved the ball very well. We utilized the whole field. We created a lot of good chances, we just didn’t finish as many as we should have. With the games we have coming up, we will need to do a better job of capitalizing on those chances.”
The Cavaliers took the lead in the 24th minute of play. Sonnett played a ball over the top that found Brian in behind the defense. She made a move on the keeper and fired the ball into the empty net for her 10th goal of the season. Menchel doubled the lead six minutes later as she one-timed a cross from Shaffer into the corner of the net for her fifth goal of the year. Virginia took the 2-0 lead into intermission, having outshot Miami 12-0.
Virginia continued the pressure in the second half, adding to the lead in the 70th minute. Sonnett’s cross found Doniak on the far side, who placed a ball inside the far post for her team-leading 13th goal of the season. The Cavaliers added a final tally with 68 seconds remaining as Fry knocked a pass from first-year Morgan Reuther (Chantilly, Va.) past the keeper and then tapped in her second goal of the season. The assist was the first of Reuther’s career.
Overall, Virginia outshot Miami 28-3 and had an 8-1 corner kick advantage. First-year Morgan Stearns (San Antonio, Texas) and senior Danielle DeLisle (Baltimore, Md.) combined to post the shutout, with DeLisle making the save on Miami’s lone shot on goal. Hurricane keeper Emily Lillard made 10 saves at the other end.
The victory gave the Cavaliers a new school record with their 17th straight win. The previous record was a 16-game win streak to start the 1990 season.
“Anytime you can make some history, it speaks volume about a team,” said Swanson. “We haven’t talked too much about this streak and that isn’t our focus. But there was a chance to make some history tonight and when you get those opportunities, you want to make the most of it. It isn’t easy to go through the schedule we have played and be this consistent. This was a chance for the 2013 team to put its stamp on Virginia soccer history, which given all the great teams we have had here, says something.”
Sunday’s Virginia-Florida State game marks the latest two unbeaten teams have played in a season since Penn State met Portland in the 2005 College Cup semifinals. October 27 will be the latest two unbeaten teams have ever met in the regular season, breaking the previous mark of Oct. 19 set by North Carolina and Santa Clara in 1997. With a victory or tie, the Cavaliers would not only remain unbeaten, but would also clinch their first ACC regular season title.
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Chris Graham
