The Plus/Minus: Virginia Women’s Soccer Crashes out of NCAAs

Virginia fell to Wisconsin 4-2 in a penalty shootout as Maggie Cagle and Linda Mittermair failed to convert their PKs.

Virginia Athletic

Not all soccer fans may be aware of the +/- statistic used in basketball and hockey which records a team’s point differential when a player is on the floor compared with when she's not. In theory, this is a clever way to measure not just a player's scoring but something media types love: the so-called intangibles.  This is a format I use for reporting on the men’s and women’s basketball teams, and I’m feeling punchy following the soccer team’s loss, so I’m going to apply it here.

Minus

It has now been four seasons since the Virginia women’s soccer team has advanced to the Round of 16 in the NCAA tournament.  Just four years ago the women possessed the second longest streak of reaching the Sweet 16 (second only to UNC) but two seasons ago, the women lost in the opening round and last year the team was not invited to the tourney.  And now a loss to a middling Wisconsin: a team like Virginia, which finished an underwhelming 9th in a power conference.

Plus

I’ll label my bias: I love PKs. Once a game hits overtime, I'm actively rooting for penalties. There is no more gut-wrenching cauldron in all of sport than PKs on a soccer pitch. I think it's the walk. Players stand huddled at midfield and have to walk, by themselves, one by one, to the appointed penalty spot.  Going from a constant-motion game like soccer to a static skill is jarring. Golfers have to make that walk all the time, but soccer players, not so much.  The pressure is unbelievable.

Minus

Wisconsin’s Hailey Baumann sent Victoria Safradin the wrong way for the first penalty.  Maggie Cagle took Virginia’s first and hit it pretty much straight down the middle for an easy save.  Yuna McCormack and Lia Godfrey hit textbook pass-the-ball-into-the-side-netting shots, bringing up Linda Mittermair who pushed the ball wide left.  Season over.  Despite what I said about loving PKs, it is an anti-climactic way to end a season.

Minus

Head coach Steve Swanson had brought in Mittermair cold to take that penalty.  She had not played a minute of the game’s 110 minutes.  Every coach who has designs on playing in the NCAA Tournament knows that there will be no ties and that penalties loom on everyone’s horizon.  Swanson has had all season to determine who his five best penalty takers are, and he must have settled on Mittermair at some point.  But to expect her to take a penalty cold, to put her under that kind of pressure, well, that’s just coaching malfeasance.

Plus

After missing the last seven games, Alexis Theoret returned to the pitch in the second half and she logged 62 minutes.  Theoret is my favorite Virginia player over the past decade and it has been a joy, and privilege to watch her.  Unfortunately, she was not match fit and was not her usual forceful presence.

Minus

Chloe Japic did not play either of Virginia’s two NCAA games, and while inconclusive, I couldn’t see her on the sideline.  I don’t know if her absence was disciplinary or due to injury, but she has been a versatile contributor to the team.  On the bright side, Swanson may have found the replacement for Samar Guidry, who is graduating, in Laughlin Ryan who was solid in defense and adventurous in attack.

Minus

Virginia was called for offsides six times.  That’s just a lack of situational awareness and it cost Virginia because four of those could have sprung a Virginia attacker for a dangerous opportunity.

Minus

Virginia sent way too many crosses into the box.  For the most part, they were lovely balls, but this team doesn’t have anyone with the aerial presence of a Meg McCool, Diana Ordonez or Haley Hopkins.  And because there was no commanding presence, every weak side runner crashed toward the penalty spot – as they should – but no one ever ran to the back of the box.  At least four nice crosses went rolling wide, free for a Wisconsin defender to start the attack.

Plus

Defenders Kiki Maki and Moira Kelley put in lights-out shifts today.  Wisconsin didn’t get a single shot on goal and the pair completely shut down Wisconsin’s best attacker, Aryssa Mahrt.

Minus

Virginia has struggled to play the ball out of the back all year.  For the past two games Swanson has opted for a five-back defensive line, ostensibly to give the defenders more targets.  It didn’t work, even against a decidedly average Wisconsin press.  I personally think you need more targets in midfield.  In any event, Yuna McCormack and Lia Godfrey weren’t able, by themselves, to control midfield.  Virginia was so inept controlling the ball that on the second half kickoff, the Cavaliers possessed the ball for less than three seconds before Kelley hit the ball out of bounds in desperation.

Minus

Karma bit Maggie Cagle in the butt today.  With three minutes left in the game, Cagle got the ball at the top of the box, turned two defenders and got baseline within the six-yard box.  As she turned toward goal, she was brought down.  She sold the foul hard but the referee’s initial call was not a penalty.  Sure, the ref went to VAR for review, but given that the initial call was not a foul, there wasn’t enough evidence to rule for a penalty.  Cagle has developed a penchant for embellishing her fouls as the season progressed, and on this night, the ref simply didn’t believe her.  And it cost Virginia a chance for the win.

Plus… and Minus

For the most part, this was an uninspiring game and yet the announcers gave it their all.  At one point when a Virginia player slipped trying to make a turn in the Wisconsin box, one announcer opined that “the pitch had gotten in her way.”  I’ve watched a lot of soccer and never heard that turn of phrase.

But the announcer gave it away in overtime when he stated that “Virginia had a plethora of chances in a myriad of ways,” which is pretty close to word salad.

Plus

Three times the camera closeup on Wisconsin keeper Drew Stover showed her delivering no-look distributions to her teammates.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.  That was pretty cool.

Next Up? Well, it’s been a pretty crummy mid-week for Virginia athletics. The women are out of the tournament and men’s basketball got hammered in two games in The Bahamas. I invite you to join me watching women’s basketball. The women play with a greater ferocity than do the men, and in Kymora Johnson, the women’s team has maybe the best player in the athletics department. You know, this side of the women’s swim and dive team. Next game is Sunday, November 24th. Game time is 4pm and is on the ACC Network.