No. 4 Virginia Blanks No. 15 Wake Forest, 3-0
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Sept. 27, 2013
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The No. 4 Virginia field hockey team shut out No. 15 Wake Forest, 3-0, Friday night (Sept. 27) in Winston-Salem.
The victory was the first ACC win of the year for the Cavaliers who improved to 10-1 overall and 1-1 in conference play. Wake Forest fell to 6-3 and 0-2 in the ACC.
“This was a superb effort by the defense,” said head coach Michele Madison. “Wake Forest is a very threatening team when they break out on the counter attack. I thought our defense, Jenny [Johnstone] in goal in particular but also Carissa [Vittese], Katie [Robinson] and Kelsey [LeBlanc] on the back line, really handled it well.”
Johnstone made five saves en route to earning her third shut out of the season. LeBlanc made a defensive save.
Virginia scored two quick goals to start the game. Freshman Lucy Hyams (Whitstable, Kent, England) scored 2:33 into the game and then assisted on a goal by senior Elly Buckley (Scarborough, Perth, Australia) a minute and a half later. Buckley added a third Cavalier goal with just under 10 minutes remaining in the game, blasting a shot into goal after corralling a rebound off the goalie’s pads.
“The Wake Forest pressure caused us to lose our game plan a little,” Madison said. “We were able to resume possession again and move the ball up the field in the back end of the second half to close out the game.”
The two teams were tied 13-13 on shots with Buckley taking six for Virginia. Wake Forest had five penalty corner chances to Virginia’s four.
Buckley, who also scored two goals in Wednesday’s 6-1 victory over James Madison, leads the ACC with 13 goals scored this season. Hyams, who had three assists in the JMU game, now has scored four goals with five assists.
The Cavaliers are in the midst of playing four games in a seven-day span. Virginia will play at Liberty on Sunday, Sept. 29 at 2 p.m. before closing out the stretch by hosting Radford on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 6 p.m. Admission is free for all 2013 Virginia field hockey regular-season home games played at Turf Field.