UVa Women's Soccer Falls To Santa Clara
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The UVa women’s soccer team closed its successful 2001 season, with a 3-2 loss at No.2 Santa Clara. The Cavaliers finish the season at 17-4-2, while the Broncos improve to 21-2. Virginia’s 17 wins rank as the second-highest win total in school history.
“We faced a good team today,” head coach Steve Swanson said. “The field conditions weren’t that great, and obviously both teams had a hard time with that. We hadn’t really faced rainy conditions like this all season.”
The Cavaliers fell behind 2-0 in the first half, while being outshot in the first half 11-0. In its four NCAA Tournament games, Santa Clara has now outshot its four opponents in the first half by a combined total of 54-3. Former U.S. Olympian Danielle Slaton scored the first goal of the game, at the 20:28 mark, her second goal of the season. Veronica Zepeda made it 2-0 for the Broncos, at the 39:50 mark. Slaton tapped in a rebound, after a pervious shot was hit off the cross bar. Zepeda scored on a cross from Slaton.
The Cavaliers went down 3-0, at the 53:44 mark as Aly Wagner scored her 16th goal of the season, on an assist from Jessica Ballweg.
The Cavaliers trailed in shots, 13-0, before getting their first shot off at the 59:39 mark. Lori Lindsey, proving why she’s earned ACC Player of the Year honors two years in a row, brought the Cavaliers back into the game on two spectacular plays. At the 59:39 mark, she set up Jess Trainor, who curved the ball into the upper left corner of the net, for the first goal of her career.
A little over a minute later, Lindsey fired a shot at the net from 40 yards away, just high enough to clear the goalkeepers head, and just low enough to clear the cross bar, for a very impressive goal. With Lindsey’s goal, the Santa Clara lead was narrowed to 3-2, as UVa got two quic k goals on two shots. The Cavalier defense also tightened in the second half, limiting Santa Clara to three second half shots.
Despite hanging tough, and getting one more shot off before game’s end, the Cavaliers fell by a final score of 3-2.
Anne Abernethy, despite allowing the three goals, had one of the more stellar performances in net this season, dominated the box in the air, snagging crosses from Santa Clara in the flank and did a tremendous job of cleaning the space in between the back four Cavalier defenders, not allowing Santa Clara to play a ball behind them. She did a great job of reading drawn balls from Santa Clara players who were trying to serve balls. h Despite hanging tough, and getting one more shot off before game’s end, the Cavaliers fell by a final score of 3-2.
NOTES – Today’s game marks the final game in the career of seniors Laura Gaworecki, Megan Leo, Lori Lindsey, Ashley Meeker and Tammy Westinghouse … Lindsey, with her three points today, finishes her Cavalier career with 33 career goals, sixth most in school history, and 76 points, which is also sixth on the school’s all-time list … she finishes her senior season with a career-best 11 goals and four assists for a total of 26 points, playing in a total of 86 games, starting 84 … Gaworecki, who played in a total of 86 games as well, starting in 84, had the best season of her career with four goals and four assists, totaling 12 points, which was good enough for third on the team … Leo played in 10 career games, including three games on this run in the NCAA Tournament … Meeker also tallied four goals and four assists this season, and was the active team leader with 12 assists … Westinghouse had a career-high three assists, playing a total of 83 games.
Shots 1 2 TVirginia 0 3 3Santa Clara 11 3 14
Corner kicks 1 2 TVirginia 0 2 2Santa Clara 5 1 6
Saves 1 2 TVirginia 2 1 3Santa Clara 0 0 0
Fouls 1 2 TVirginia 7 9 16Santa Clara 9 11 20