Women’s soccer: No. 1 Virginia hosts No. 6 Notre Dame In ACC showdown

The top-ranked Virginia (7-0-1, 1-0-0 ACC) women’s soccer team continues its five-match home stand on Thursday night, hosting No. 6 Notre Dame (7-1-1, 0-1-0 ACC) at Klöckner Stadium at 7 p.m.

It’s an exciting evening for fans at the stadium with events surrounding the showdown between the top-10 teams. Former Cavaliers Morgan Brian and Danielle Colaprico will return to sign autographs in the hour prior to kick and will be honored at halftime. Fans can also receive a Virginia soccer scarf as a part of the program’s annual scarf giveaway.

Fans who can’t make it to the stadium can follow the match via live stats or on Cavaliers Live by going to VirginiaSports.com.

Virginia enters the Thursday night contest coming off a shutout victory over Syracuse on Sunday afternoon. It was the third consecutive clean sheet for the Cavaliers and fifth of the season. Senior Kristen McNabb (Montville, N.J.) paced the Virginia offense, scoring two goals in the win for her first multi-goal match of her career.

The Cavaliers lead the ACC and are second in the nation in offensive production, scoring 3.88 goals per game and have 11 different goal scorers on the season. It’s a balanced attack presented by the Virginia offense with 12 different players assisting on those goals. Junior Morgan Reuther (Chantilly, Va.) leads the squad with five goals on the year and is one of two players to tally hat tricks this season. Senior Makenzy Doniak (Chino Hills, Calif.) leads the squad with six assists.

Defensively, the Cavaliers have been solid with the five shutouts and have only allowed four goals on the season – one at home. A pair of keepers split time in goal for Virginia with juniors Jessie Ferrari (Fairfax, Va.) and Morgan Stearns (San Antonio, Texas) helping the Cavaliers to a streak of 38 consecutive home wins – the sixth-longest home win streak in NCAA history.

Notre Dame enters the contest coming off a double-overtime loss at Clemson to open conference play this past weekend. Anna Gilbertson leads the Fighting Irish offense with five goals on the season and is one of nine players to score goals to date. Nine different players have also tallied assists with Natalie Jacobs leading the way with four assists to go along with four goals.

The Fighting Irish have allowed only four goals on the season and have posted six shutouts through nine matches.

Gates open one hour prior to kick and single-game tickets are $9 for reserved seats (if available), $7 for adults, and $5 for youth, seniors and faculty/staff in general admission areas. UVa students are admitted free.