UVA Soccer: Seventh-ranked ‘Hoos sneak past #6 FSU in PKs to advance in ACC Tournament

The Virginia-Florida State ACC Tournament quarterfinal was a 0-0 draw through 110 minutes, and played into PKs, where a Victoria Safradin save in the sixth round followed by a successful attempt from Maya Carter pushed the ‘Hoos to the dramatic win.

With the win, the seventh-ranked ‘Hoos (12-2-4) advance to the semifinals to face #2 Stanford (15-1-1, 9-0-1 ACC) in Cary, N.C., on Thursday at 8 p.m.

The contest will be broadcast on ACC Network. Tickets are available at TheACC.com.

The UVA-Stanford game is the nightcap of a doubleheader that starts at 5:30 p.m. with #1 Notre Dame (13-1-2) and #10 Duke (13-3-1, 7-3-0 ACC).

Duke advanced to the semifinals with a 1-0 win over #21 Louisville (13-4-2, 6-2-2 ACC) on Sunday.

Stanford and Notre Dame each had byes into the semis.

The result of the UVA-FSU game is officially entered into the record books as a draw, incidentally.

The two sides played through 90 minutes of regulation and the entirety of two OT periods with no scoring – FSU (10-2-4, 6-2-2 ACC), ranked sixth nationally, had a 15-12 advantage in shots.

The teams each buried their first five chances in the shootout to send it to extra rounds. Florida State’s Giana Riley took the sixth chance for her team, sending the shot low and to the left of Safradin. The Virginia keeper dove, making the save as she got both hands on the ball and punched it wide of goal.

Safradin had a career-high eight saves in the contest, passing her previous high of seven set against Louisville earlier this season.

Carter then stepped to the spot for the ‘Hoos and sent her shot to the upper left corner to send her team to the semifinals.

“I saw a lot of heart to come down here after playing on Thursday and give the kind of effort we did. It was an amazing team win,” said UVA coach Steve Swanson, who earlier in the week had recorded his 500th career victory as a head coach.

“Florida State is a great team and it’s hard to keep them off the scoreboard, but that was the difference in the game,” Swanson said. “We defended very well and put everything into this. I’m proud of the team. We had some players step up in the shootout and Viki was awesome. We have to get rested now, that was a physical battle for sure.”