McDermott's Brace Powers UVA Women's Soccer Over West Virginia 2-1
Virginia's unblemished shutout record for the 2023 season has come to an end. An onslaught of offensive pressure from the visiting Mountaineers resulted in UVA's first surrendered goal of the season and West Virginia nearly mounted a late comeback. But thanks to a strong first half from the Cavaliers, including a brilliant first 20 minutes to start the match that resulted in two goals for Meredith McDermott, the No. 12 Virginia women's soccer team held on for a 2-1 victory over West Virginia on Thursday night at Klockner Stadium to remain unbeaten on the season.
The Cavaliers couldn't have asked for a much better start to the match, finding the back of the net just over three minutes in. Jill Flammia stole the ball from West Virginia in the midfield and sent an accurate through ball down the right wing for Maggie Cagle, who carried the ball into the box and dropped off a beautiful pass to Meredith McDermott, who had a fairly easy job and punched it home to give UVA the early lead.
15 minutes later, McDermott hustled to apply pressure on West Virginia goalie Kayza Massey and her effort was rewarded, as she was able to dislodge the ball from Massey's grasp and waltzed it to the goal line for an even easier goal than her first.
"The first goal was just an amazing setup by my teammate Maggie [Cagle]," said McDermott after the game. "She played the ball great back and it was an easy finish because of how perfectly she set it up. And then the second one, I was a little shocked as well at that one. I just kept going and tried to get there... ended up getting there and it just went in the back of the net."
UVA almost made it 3-0 a minute later as Cagle maneuvered into the box from the left wing this time and lofted a short and precise floater to none other than Meredith McDermott, who headed it towards the far post and only a diving effort from Massey denied McDermott a first-half hat trick.
Virginia dominated possession in the first half, resulting in a 8-1 shots advantage for the Cavaliers. UVA had a couple more solid scoring chances in the first half, but couldn't convert, so the halftime score remained 2-0. Virginia head coach Steve Swanson attributed the strong first half to his team's ability to maintain ball control and prevent the Mountaineers from getting quality chances in transition.
"I thought we kept good possession of it. They're a very good transition team - they got a lot of good athletes. They don't waste their time - they get the ball in the box quickly. They look to take their shots," Swanson said of West Virginia. "I just thought our ball control, our tempo of the game, really made the difference in the first half. We didn't give it away as cheaply in the second half and so it didn't lead to transitional moments. It didn't lead to set plays as much. So that was good - we did what we wanted to do in the first half. The second half was another story."
Swanson's final words there perfectly encapsulate what happened in the second half. West Virginia stormed out of the gates to start the second half and immediately began applying pressure to the UVA defense, resulting in a barrage of shots against Virginia goalkeeper Cayla White, who did everything she could to stand her ground.
"They changed their formation and we knew they were going to press harder," Swanson said of the Mountaineers' second-half adjustments. "Credit to West Virginia - they put some pressure on us. I didn't think we adapted too well to that pressure."
West Virginia attempted eight shots in the second half alone, six of which went on goal. Several of those scoring chances were generated by Dilary Heredia-Beltran, who terrorized the Virginia defense from the left wing. A high-arcing and curving strike from Heredia-Beltran in the 69th minute required a diving one-handed save from White to push the ball up and over the crossbar.
"Cayla played great. I thought she did a great job and that's what we expect out of her," Swanson said of White after the match. "She's a leader for us and she made some big saves."
The only shot White didn't save came in the 85th minute as a blunder from the UVA defense gave West Virginia a 2-on-1 transition opportunity, the bread and butter of the Mountaineers offense. Once again, it was Dilary Heredia-Beltran leading the charge and she ripped a shot from just outside the 18-yard mark. The shot curved sharply towards the far post and White leapt and made the stop, but this time the rebound got away from her and Taylor White managed to kick the ball around the UVA goalkeeper and into the back of the net.
Suddenly, Virginia was clinging to just a one-goal lead with less than six minutes to play. To their credit, the Cavaliers reverted to their first-half form at the most critical juncture of the match, possessing the ball deep in West Virginia's end of the field to kill the remainder of the clock and secure the victory.
"Disappointed to give up the goal when we did and how we did it," said Swanson. "In some ways, it was good for us cause I think we learned from it and we finished off the game better. I thought the last five minutes situationally we did a better job killing off the game."
Thanks to McDermott's second brace of the season and some incredible second-half saves from Cayla White, Virginia hung on for the win to improve to 4-0-1 on the season. Up next, UVA remains at home to host VCU on Sunday at 2pm at Klockner Stadium.
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