Cavaliers Now

Virginia Women’s Soccer Roars Back, Overtakes SMU 2-1

2nd half goals from Lia Godfrey and Meredith McDermott, as well as a save from Viki Safradin, give Virginia the win over Southern Methodist

Val Prochaska

Virginia Athletics

On a beautiful day in Charlottesville, Virginia women’s head coach Steve Swanson was celebrated for his 25th season at UVa.  Despite a sluggish first half, as well as a howler conceded by goalie Viki Safradin, the Cavaliers secured the win, and the happy memories, for Swanson.

Both teams came into this game needing a win.  Virginia was only a win over bottom-feeder NC State delivered from a four-game losing streak.  SMU was on a five-game winless streak.  Such is life in the ACC. 

Virginia came out struggling to play the ball out of the back, which has been a season-long affliction.  This is the first I’ve seen SMU play, and while they knew they would spend much of the game defending in the low block, they did press Virginia.  Across the board, SMU’s midfield and forward lines were quicker than Virginia’s midfielders and defenders.  The day was also quite windy and the conditions punished, as it so usually does, the team with the better ball control.  Virginia’s passes were consistently to the back foot, or when a Cavalier got to the end-line, the resulting cross would sail 10 yards past the target attacker.

The Mustangs were a threat on the counter all game long as Nyah Rose and Eliana Salama found space behind the Cavaliers’ line, or in this example, right in front of Moira Kelley.  Just 15 minutes into the game, and Virginia was chasing a result.

The women wouldn’t mount much of a challenge for the remainder of the half.  The struggles to get the ball out of the Virginia half had moved well out of “bad” territory to it’s “frankly-embarrassing” territory.  The game got a little stretched and Virginia had some success as they successfully countered SMU’s counters.  It was really the only way Virginia could move the ball out of their half, and the best chance came 24 minutes in when a lovely Tatum Galvin shot drew a superb save from Sierra Cota-Yarde. 

I did find myself grousing that Virginia’s keepers never seem to be able to pull off such a save.  Laurel Ivory and Cayla White were fine keepers and they had the full confidence of their teammates, but shot-stoppers they were not.  Then later in the half the game announcer mentioned how he talked to Swanson about how excited he was for Safradin’s future career and he marveled how she seemingly stopped everything in sight in practice.  After that gift to SMU, it was hard to hear that about Safradin, but more on that in a moment.

It is a truism that soccer is a game of two halves and it’s an observable fact that Swanson’s teams come out on fire after halftime.  Just four minutes in, Maggie Cagle found Lia Godfrey’s run for the superb finish to the low post. 

Each of the last three games, the announcers have marveled aloud over Godfrey’s having failed to find the back of the net, 14 games in now, as well as having failed to notch even an assist.  I’m pretty sure that Godfrey was well aware of this deficit as this was her reaction to the goal:

Lia Godfrey reacts after scoring a goal during the Virginia women's soccer match against SMU at Klockner Stadium.
Virginia Athletics

(Godfrey is usually one of the least demonstrative players on the pitch.  I’ve never seen her display this much emotion.)

There’s usually a lull after a goal like this, but the breakneck pace continued.  SMU started to struggle to play the ball out from the back, but on the rare occasion when it did, it was on the counter.  SMU is just really good on the counter and 10 minutes into the half, Salama hit the upright.  The game announcer called the game “frenetic” and Virginia may have found a new left back in the person of Tatum Galvin.  Two minutes after the Salama shot, Galvin stroked a second great shot, one that had beaten the keeper, but that was deflected away.

Sophia Bradley, who has brought energy and directness all season long to the attack, had a chance 17 minutes in when she was at the far post.  If she’d headed it, it would have been a goal, but she played a volley instead, and wanting keep control, she ended up softly nudging it right at the keeper.  Three minutes later, she made a nifty run into the box and served Meredith McDermott at the penalty spot.  McDermott had half the goal wide open, but she pushed the shot wide.  It could have been a catastrophic miss – these women are notoriously profligate in front of goal – but with nine minutes left in the game, McDermott atoned with the game winner of another Cagle feed.  (That’s two assists for the second straight game for Cagle, if you’re counting.)  This was a striker’s goal, one we need to see more of from McDermott, but for now, it’s her second straight game-winner.

Oh, and speaking of atonement, Viki Safradin made this save, just two minutes after McDermott’s goal, to secure the win.  Heretofore we’ve not seen this kind of shot-stopping from Safradin, but this was a great shot and this save secured the win.

Injury Notes

Team captain Emma Dawson has not played a game the past two years.  Her loss has been particularly acute because she’s the midfielder most capable of playing the sideline-hugging style that Swanson prefers.  For the most part, Virginia has not played Virginia soccer these past two years and it’s at the heart of the team’s struggles.  Apparently, coaches are hopefully optimistic that Dawson, who’s in her sixth year at Virginia, will see the pitch sometime this season.

The announcer also mentioned that Alexis Theoret may also return to the fold before the season ends.  It’s still a long shot that this team qualifies for the NCAA Tournament, but for the team to have any hope of advancing, Theoret has to be available.  She is the metronome for this team and she might be the most important Cavalier of the past decade.

Like Dawson, Lia Godfrey missed all last season, but unlike Emma, she has played every game this year.  She has taken an agonizingly long time to get fully match fit, but she is finally there.  The goal is one marker.  Here’s a second:

This has long been Godfrey’s MO.  She rarely tackles the ball; she just steps in between the ball and the other player.  I’ve never seen anyone, at any level, do this so well, so often.  If Godfrey is able to bring her defensive “A” game, this midfield becomes that much more solid.

Up Next

Virginia travels to Tallahassee to take on Florida State on Thursday, October 17th at 7:00pm. This is the game of the season for the Hoos. FSU is the class program of the last decade, having won four national title and nine ACC tournaments in the last 11 years. The Seminoles are in a bit of a rut of their own. Over their last five games, they tied these SMU Mustangs, got blown out by Wake Forest (who, for the record, blew UVa out too,) and surrendered three goals in the last 10 minutes to Virginia Tech and suffered a 3-2 loss. They had a bit of a breather beating a decidedly mediocre Boston College 1-0 on Saturday to maybe get them back on track. Six different Seminoles played on women’s U20 teams at the World Cup and they are struggling to reacclimate to each other. This is the best possible time for Virginia to take on Florida State. This would be a statement win and it might be sufficient to secure an NCAA invitation for the Cavaliers.

Published
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.