Q&A with Jess Rostedt

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This week the Virginia women’s soccer team looks to rebound from a 1-2 start to the ACC season when it hosts No. 19 Maryland Thursday night at 7 p.m. Virginiasports.com caught up with senior forward Jess Rostedt to discuss the season thus far and to look ahead at this week’s games.

Question: Opening the ACC season with a 1-2 record isn’t the type of start you had planned. What has the team learned from the first three games?

Rostedt: We learned that we can’t take any team for granted and we have to be ready to go every game. The ACC is the best conference in the country and every team is capable of beating any other team. We just need to leave everything on the field every game we play.

Question: There have been a lot of surprising results so far in the conference. How has that shown the depth of the ACC?

Rostedt: The league is unbelievably deep this year. Every team is good. In the time that I have been here, there have been more upsets this year than any other year and we are only two weeks into the season. It is going to be a wild year and every game is going to be big.

Question: The team had a weekend and enter Thursday’s game on eight days rest. Has the break been a benefit for you at this point of the season?

Rostedt: I has been good. We had a few days off and it allowed those little, nagging injuries some time to heal. It has allowed us to regroup and refocus as a team. We just need to make this rest pay off for us by going out and playing with a lot of energy on Thursday. The Maryland game should be a fun atmosphere. Thursday nights at Klöckner always are fun.

Question: You play a pair of ranked teams this week, hosting No. 19 Maryland on Thursday and visiting No. 6 Boston College on Sunday. How important are these games this week?

Rostedt: It is crucial to get some momentum going. With the ACC so close, every game matters and these are key games for us. They are big games for us in the standings and to build some confidence going into the stretch of the season. We are ready for a tough game against Maryland. We had a tough game with them last year, winning up there in overtime, and are expecting another tough game on Thursday.