Cavaliers Now

Virginia Women’s Soccer Dispatches Northwestern 2-0

Meredith McDermott scored early and UVA switched into cruise control for the comfortable win

Val Prochaska

Virginia women's soccer moves to 2-0 on the season with a 2-0 shutout win over Northwestern.
Virginia women's soccer moves to 2-0 on the season with a 2-0 shutout win over Northwestern. / Virginia Athletics

Virginia head coach Steve Swanson is a classy gentleman but AI could pretty easily predict what he’s going to say about a defeated foe.  He’ll say that they were well-organized and he’ll hint that they will be playing deep into November.  And he’ll say the Hoos need to be more efficient in front of goal.

Well, two of three this time…

Unlike the Towson game, this game was over pretty quickly.  Tatum Galvin slotted a through ball to Meredith McDermott that Northwestern defender Tanna Schornstein tried to deny, (she slipped) and McDermott was off to the races, slotting cleanly to give Virginia the 1-0 lead.

The UVa statistic for the new season: Virginia has not lost a game in over five years in which they have held a lead.  (The announcers of both games thus far have trumpeted this nugget.)  The game, then followed this script as the women choked off the game and added to the lead just before halftime.

Lia Godfrey hit a gorgeous ball well out wide and ahead of Degen Miller.  Miller drove to the endline and her strong cross was bundled over the line by a Northwestern defender.  Good things always happen when you make defenders racing towards their own goal make a play.  Officially it was an own goal, but Degen deserves the credit for this one.

Freshman Victoria Safradin has been drawing raves from Swanson with the stops she makes in practice and this was the first time she’s been challenged:

It’s hard to know what to make of a coach’s ravings.  The word out of camp last year was that Andrew Rohde was extremely aggressive and Ryan Dunn was a passable free throw shooter.  But Swanson had Laurel Ivory for five years and Cayla White for three and if Safradin is a better shot stopper, that will only be good news.

Because the bad news is that this Cavaliers team is still very much at the starting gate.  The injury list is long – Jill Flammia, Emma Dawson and Aniyah Collier have yet to play – and Lia Godfrey isn’t remotely game fit yet (she played just 5 minutes in the second half, for example.)  If you’re counting, that’s three midfielders either missing or barely ready to play.  In their collective absence, Linda Mittermair has grabbed the reins, but she’s playing very strangely.  On defense, she is pressing high, almost as a fourth forward, and very much on the left slotted between McDermott and Maggie Cagle.  On offense, it looks like she’s trying to find slots in the opponent’s defense, but it doesn’t seem like anyone knows where she is going to be.  She’s barely touching the ball, leaving the control of midfield to fall just to Alexis Theoret and Yuna McCormack. 

Against the Towsons and Northwesterns of the world, well, that will suffice.  Virginia is too good for them.  But against #4 Penn State, who Virginia travels to on Thursday, it could get ugly.  The game will be on B1G+ and gametime is at 5:30pm.

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Val Prochaska

VAL PROCHASKA

Val graduated from the University of Virginia in the last millennium, back when writing one's senior thesis by hand was still a thing. He is a lifelong fan of the ACC, having chosen the Tobacco Road conference ahead of the Big East. Again, when that was still a thing. Val has covered Virginia men's basketball for seven years, first with HoosPlace and then with StreakingTheLawn, before joining us here at Virginia Cavaliers on SI in August of 2023, continuing to cover UVA men's basketball and also writing about women's soccer and women's basketball.