Third-seeded Virginia built on a 1-0 halftime lead with three second-half goals on its way to a 4-0 shutout win over Farleigh Dickinson in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday at Klöckner Stadium.
The Cavaliers (14-3-3) got on the board in the seventh minute when Maggie Cagle found Haley Hopkins for a header at point-blank range. A foul in the box on Cagle set up a Hopkins penalty kick that was saved by the FDU keeper.
Cagle collected the rebound and reset the offense. She dribbled down the right side of the box before sending the cross in to Hopkins, who finished with the header from a yard out.
The goal was Hopkins’ 12th of the season.
An Alex Spaanstra penalty kick in the 60th minute made it 2-0 ‘Hoos, and goals in the final minutes from Talia Staude and Meredith McDermott.
“It was a good win. We are very happy to be moving on,” UVA coach Steve Swanson said. “Congratulations to Fairleigh Dickinson, I thought they had a great season, obviously, they won their conference championship. They played hard and it was a competitive game. There are things we can take away from this game. We did some good things, but we’ve got to be more consistent in how we manage games like this. We won, which is good, but when you win and you can learn some things and apply those to the next game, that’s a good thing, too.”
