No. 7 Virginia Faces Yale Friday at 2 p.m.
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No. 7 Virginia (2-0) at Yale (0-0) |
Date and Time Friday, Sept. 6, 2 p.m. Location New Haven, Conn. | Johnson Field
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Sept. 5, 2013
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 7 Virginia field hockey team will play a pair of road games this week, facing Yale on Friday, Sept. 6 at 2 p.m. followed by a trip to Old Dominion on Sunday, Sept. 8 at 1 p.m.
Virginia (2-0) is looking to start the season with a 4-0 record for the fourth time in the last six years. The Cavaliers opened the 2013 campaign last weekend with a 3-2 victory over Louisville followed by a 4-2 win over No. 6 Penn State.
Senior forward Elly Buckley (Scarborough, Perth, Australia) was named the ACC Player of the Week for her performance in the opening two games. Buckley scored a pair of game winning goals, logging seven points in the contests and also adding the sixth defensive save of her career. Buckley is now tied for eighth place on the Virginia career defensive-save list. She also moved up to seventh on the career-points list (140), seventh for career goals (56) and is tied for eighth for career assists (28).
Of the nine freshmen on Virginia’s roster, seven saw action in the first two games of the season. Riley Tata (Virginia Beach, Va.) scored a goal in each of the first two games, including scoring the very first UVa goal of the season. Tata has scored her two goals on the first two shots of her career. Caleigh Foust (Bryn Mawr, Pa.) also added a goal in the opening game against Louisville. Macy Peebles (Yorktown, Va.) and Lucy Hyams (Whitstable, Kent, England) each recorded their first career assists during the opening homestand.
Preseason All-ACC junior goalkeeper Jenny Johnstone (Paisley, Scotalnd) recorded 16 saves in the first two games with an .800 save percentage. Buckley and senior Katie Robinson (Mount Joy, Pa.) added defensive saves to give the team an .818 save percentage.
Friday’s game will be the season-opener for Yale and will also be the debut of a new AstroTurf playing surface at Johnson Field that was part of an off-season renovation of the facility.
Yale returns eight players who started 10 or more games and two All-Ivy League selections, senior forward/midfielder Erica Borgo and sophomore forward/midfielder Nicole Wells, from last season, when the team went 6-11 overall and 3-4 in the league. The team’s 40 wins in the past four seasons are the third-best four-year span in school history.
Virginia is 3-0 all-time against Yale, including a 4-0 victory last season in Charlottesville.
Old Dominion, ranked No. 8 in the preseason NFHCA poll, opened the season with a 3-1 loss to Penn State. ODU will face No. 2 Maryland on Friday before hosting the No. 7 Cavaliers on Sunday. The Monarchs’ schedule doesn’t get any easier as they play next weekend at No. 1 North Carolina and then No. 10 Duke.
Old Dominion holds a 33-12 advantage in the all-time series. Virginia defeated the Monarchs, 5-4, last season in Charlottesville, but fell 4-1 in 2011 during UVa’s last trip to Norfolk.
For the second consecutive year, Old Dominion will host the NCAA Division I national title game along with the national semifinals on Nov. 22 and 24 at the L.R. Hill Sports Complex.
The Cavaliers return home on Wednesday, Sept. 11 for a 6 p.m. midweek contest against Richmond. Admission is free for all regular-season home games played at Turf Field.