Women’s soccer: No. 4 UVA hosts Michigan State Thursday night

The No. 4 Virginia women’s soccer team (2-0-0) hosts the Michigan State Spartans (1-0-1) at 7 p.m. on Thursday (Aug. 25) at Klöckner Stadium. It’s the first of two home games this weekend for the Cavaliers and continues a six-game home stand.

It marks only the third time the two teams have met on the pitch with the series tied 1-1-0. Virginia dropped a neutral-site contest with Michigan State 2-1 in 1993 before winning a home contest against the Spartans 3-0 in 1994.

The first 500 students in attendance will receive a free Hoo Crew t-shirt along with Domino’s pizza and two students will be selected to compete in a crossbar challenge at halftime.

Virginia enters the contest coming off a solid opening weekend in which the Cavaliers posted a pair of shutout victories over Liberty and George Mason. With the wins, senior goalkeeper Morgan Stearns (San Antonio, Texas) set the school record for wins and now holds a 56-5-4 record for her career.

Freshman Meghan McCool (Glenside, Pa.) paced the offense on the weekend, scoring a goal and adding an assist. All told, six different players scored through the two matches as Virginia won 4-0 at Liberty in the season opener and 2-0 over George Mason in the home opener two days later.

The scoring has come from a balanced attack that saw four different players deliver assists on the six goals.

The defense, which limited opponents to nine shots and no goals through the two games in the opening weekend, is headlined by four seniors who combined to help the Cavaliers post 15 shutouts and allowed only 12 goals a year ago in a run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.

Michigan State enters the contest after an opening weekend that saw the Spartans play Niagara to a scoreless draw and post a 1-0 win over Baylor. Jamie Cheslik scored the lone goal for the Spartans on the weekend. Kaitlyn Collin started both games and played the full time in goal for Michigan State. She posted 17 saves through the two games, while the defense allowed 34 shots from Niagara and Baylor.