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No. 5 Virginia Blanks Bulldogs
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Oct. 6, 2012
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 5 Virginia field hockey team shut out Yale, 4-0, to win its seventh game in a row. Taylor Brown scored her first career goal in the victory.The Cavaliers dominated the game, with Yale pinned back on defense almost the entire contest. The Bulldogs did not get off a shot until the final two minutes of the game, an off-target attempt that went far wide of the net.
“We knew that we needed to start working on having the whole team play defense and that is what it came down to,” said head coach Michele Madison of her team’s defensive stand. “The first two lines of the press were able to slide and get pressure on and take away their options that were one pass away.”
Offensively, it was once again forward Paige Selenski (R-Sr., Shavertown, Pa.) who got the scoring started. Selenski inserted the ball from a penalty corner and then worked her way to the front of the goal where she took a pass from Elly Buckley and whipped a clean shot into the goal six minutes into the game. Selenski would add a second goal, the Cavaliers’ fourth of the game, with less than six minutes remaining in the contest. Off another penalty corner, Jess Orrett (So., Somerset, England) came up with a loose ball in front of the goal, passing it to Selenksi at the corner of the net who smacked it in for the score.
Three of Virginia’s four goals came off penalty corners with the Cavaliers being awarded 16 of them in the game.
“We had an opportunity to practice all of our penalty corner options,” Madison said. “I think we went through the whole gamut. Yale did a great job of reading our options and covered well.”
Taylor Brown (Fr., Charlottesville, Va.) also scored off a penalty corner in the first half. After a shot from the initial insertion, Brown came up with the rebound in front of the net. She took two shots at the goal, with her second getting around the goalkeeper to give Brown the first goal of her career.
Buckley scored Virginia’s other goal, taking a rebound and dribbling it up to the top of the circle and firing off an on-target shot.
The Cavaliers took 27 shots in the game, with Yale’s Emily Cain getting six saves. The Yale defense helped Cain’s cause with 11 blocked shots that never made it to the goal.
Selenski’s goals moved her four points closer to becoming Virginia’s all-time points leader. She now has 221 career points, nine points away from tying Meredith Thorpe (1995-98) for the record of 230. Selenski is also eight goals shy of the Thorpe’s record of 101 in her career. Selenski’s game-winning goal was her fifth of the season. She is now tied for second with 26 game-winners in her career, three shy of the 29 scored by Cindy Carzo (1976-79).
With the victory, the Cavaliers improve to 12-2 (2-0 ACC). Yale falls to 3-7 (1-2 Ivy).
The Cavaliers will have a quick turnaround, heading back to Turf Field to host No. 19 New Hampshire on Sunday, Oct. 7 at 1 p.m. Note: Due to a poor weather forecast, Cavman’s Crew post game activities schedule for Sunday, including face painting and a team autograph session, have been cancelled.