Women’s soccer: No. 7 UVA defeats William & Mary, 3-0

The No. 7 UVA (3-0-0) women’s soccer team picked up is third straight win to open the season, going on the road for a 3-0 victory at William & Mary (0-3-0) on Thursday night.

The Cavaliers got a first-half goal from Brianna Westrup (Corona del Mar, Calif.) before second-half goals from Sydney Zandi (West Chester, Pa.) and Alissa Gorzak (Naperville, Ill.) cemented the final margin of victory.

Sophomore Laurel Ivory (Surfside, Fla.) posted her second straight clean sheet, making saves on the only two shots from the Tribe. She improved to 2-0-0 on the season in goal.

“William & Mary competed hard and gave us all we could handle,” said Virginia head coach Steve Swanson. “Laurel (Ivory) did a great job tonight. Those are tough games when you only have to make a play on two shots, but they were point-blank shots and she saved them for us. I give a lot of credit to William & Mary. You can throw the records out. It’s always a game like this where it’s very competitive and we knew we would have our hands full.”

The first goal, an unconventional score, came off the foot of Westrup. The senior defender sent in a service from 40 yards out that sailed into the box. The Tribe keeper reached up to secure the ball, but it popped through her hands and into the goal for the 1-0 lead.

At halftime, the score remained 1-0 in favor of the Cavaliers, despite a 12-0 advantage on shots for Virginia.

The Tribe got its first chance in the opening minutes of the second half with a one-on-one chance inside the six-yard box. Virginia’s Ivory was up to the task, making the diving save and deflecting the ball safely away from goal.

Virginia extended the lead to two goals in the 54th minute when Ayan Adu (Ashburn, Va.) broke away from her defender and played a through ball ahead to Zandi at the top of the box. The sophomore midfielder took her shot from 15 yards out, slipping it past the diving keeper just inside the far left post.

The final goal of the night came in the 87th minute when freshman Ashlynn Serepca (Cornelius, N.C.) sliced a ball across the box, threading the needle through the defense to Gorzak racing into the box. Gorzak took the one-touch shot and buried it in the net for the 3-0 score.

Virginia returns to action on Sunday afternoon, hosting Bucknell at 2 p.m.