Cavaliers Now

Virginia Women’s Soccer Handles James Madison 3-0

UVa’s Kiki Maki and Ella Carter score their first collegiate goals

Val Prochaska

Alexis Theoret posted two assists to help the Virginia women's soccer team beat JMU 3-0 on the road on Sunday.
Alexis Theoret posted two assists to help the Virginia women's soccer team beat JMU 3-0 on the road on Sunday. / Virginia Athletics

James Madison won the Sun Belt Conference tournament last year and went to the NCAA Tournament last year for the first time in decades.  The Dukes clearly want to return because head coach Josh Walters has scheduled an impressive non-conference slate for the women:  Maryland, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, and Virginia.  The Dukes came to play and had every intention of taking the game to the Cavaliers.

They were well-intentioned to be sure, but JMU simply didn’t have anyone in the class of Virginia’s Alexis Theoret or Samar Guidry.  Theoret was her usual excellent self, controlling midfield almost by herself.  Jill Flammia is lost for the season, Emma Dawson hasn’t returned from her injury almost 18 months ago, Yuna McCormack is away with the U20s and Lia Godfrey is taking forever to get up to match fitness.  So Theoret has a lot on her shoulders, but she’s moving forward more than she’s ever done in her three-year career as a starter.  Doing her best Lia Godfrey impression, Theoret had a lovely long range blast in the first half that was only kept out of goal by an even better save from keeper Sofia DeCerb.  Mostly though, the women looked for Theoret more than they usually do.  She had 25 touches in the game’s first 25 minutes when I stopped counting because it was obvious the gameplan was to get Alexis involved.   This is a good thing because many is the time I’ve thought that the Virginia women have gone out of their way to bypass her.  She’s the best player on the team and I don’t care how many touches she gets.  She ought to get more.

Samar Guidry also had her most encouraging game in over a year.  She’s still not the dribbler she was her first two years on Grounds, but she was up and down the left flank, looking brighter than she’s been in a while.  She whipped in a blistering cross just 90 seconds in that, to be truthful, Maggie Cagle ought to have done better with.

No mind, the damage was done.  Guidry and Theoret had set the tone and JMU was going to spend most of the game on their back foot.

The opening goal came midway through the first half as a lovely Cagle and Allie Ross combination gave Cagle the ball on a platter inside the box.  It was a clinical finish, and gave the Cavaliers the 1 – 0 lead.

Freshman Sophia Bradley, playing in just her second game after sitting out the first three games, kept the pressure on as she started the second half.  Bradley has size and speed and it could be just a matter of time (and/or health because she comes up limping a couple times a game) that she’s starting.  Allie Ross has better in-game vision at this point than Bradley, but she’s not clinical in front of goal.  Twice in the first 15 minutes, the announcers commented that “Ross would certainly want that opportunity back.”  Bradley should be pressing Ross for playing time soon.

Virginia’s second two goals came off of corners and were the result of players crashing the goal like they’ve practiced.  They weren’t particularly inspiring, but causing chaos on the goal mouth is in every team’s arsenal and Virginia was the beneficiary on this night.  Despite an otherwise stellar night, DeCerb really could have done better defending her goal.

Overall, this was the most disciplined the team has played in this young season.  Virginia was methodical in a way we haven’t seen in two years with more intricate passing to the degree that it was like the women were running shadow drills on the pitch.  Lia Godfrey got the second half start which has to be a sign of increased game fitness.  The team was very successful building out from the back, which is a marked improvement from the Penn State game.  Sometimes these non-conference games just provide the Cavaliers with cannon fodder, but this game feels more consequential.  This was a good building block for the remainder of the season.

Next Up:  Virginia is still “on the road,” this time to Richmond to take on VCU on Thursday, September 5th.  Gametime is 7:00pm and the game is on ESPN+

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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.