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No. 3 UVa Welcomes No. 16 Old Dominion, Northwestern
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The third-ranked Virginia field hockey team (2-0) welcomes No. 16 Old Dominion for its home opener at 1 p.m. Sunday at the University Hall Turf Field. The Cavaliers will then face Northwestern at 3 p.m. Monday. Live stats will be available for both games at VirginiaSports.com.
The game against ODU Sunday is Cavman’s Crew Day and will feature free face painting and popcorn while supplies last. All youth are invited to participate.
Following the game vs. Northwestern Monday, Virginia players and coaches will host a free youth clinic on the Turf Field.
UVa is 2-0 on the season, with shutout victories against Saint Joseph’s (4-0) and No. 18 Penn State (3-0) last weekend. Junior Paige Selenski has paced the offense thus far with three goals, while newcomer Elly Buckley has scored twice. Senior Taylor Swezey also has four assists on the young season. Senior Kim Kastuk and junior Adrienne Ostroff have each seen time in the cage.
Old Dominion is 1-3 on the year. The Monarchs opened the season with a 4-0 loss at Penn State, then bounced back with a 2-1 victory at American. Most recently, ODU dropped a 3-1 decision at second-ranked Maryland. Loran Hatch, Anna Kern and Julie Hodge have each notched scores for the Monarchs, while Marla Petriello has 13 saves and a .619 save percentage in goal.
ODU holds a 32-10 all-time advantage against the Cavaliers, but Virginia has won the last two meetings. Last year, UVa came away with a 1-0 victory in Norfolk. The last Monarch win over the Cavaliers was a 3-1 victory in 2007.
Northwestern is 2-2 on the year after wins against Northeastern (4-2) and Colgate (4-1) and losses to Syracuse (6-1) and VCU (4-1). Australian Chelsea Armstrong, who was a club teammate of Virginia’s Buckley and Chloe Pendlebury, leads the Wildcats with four goals and two assists. Regan Mooney has added two scores while Katie Lynch (.684 save percentage) and Amanda Wirth (.562) have shared time in goal.
Virginia is 6-2 all-time against Northwestern but the teams have not met since 2006, a 3-2 Cavalier win in Charlottesville.
NU head coach Tracey Fuchs, a former national team player, coached three Cavaliers on the Junior National Team: Selenski, junior Michelle Vittese and sophomore Tara Puffenberger. Fuchs served as the head coach of the squad that played in the 2009 Junior World Cup and most recently was an assistant on the national team’s European tour that both Selenski and Vittese played on, earning their first international caps.