No. 1 Virginia Remains Undefeated With 3-0 Win Over No. 12 Louisville

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – For the third straight match it was senior Meghan McCool (Glenside, Pa.) that delivered a game-winner as No. 1 Virginia (13-0-3, 5-0-3 ACC) raced to a 3-0 victory over No. 12 Louisville (11-2-2, 4-2-2 ACC) on Thursday night at Klöckner Stadium. 
 
McCool turned in a brace, scoring in both halves to help the Cavaliers remain undefeated on the season and also stay undefeated all-time against the Cardinals. Virginia is now 7-0-0 in the all-time series with Louisville.

It marked the third consecutive match against Louisville that saw McCool hit the game-winner to lift Virginia past the Cardinals. She hit the game-winning goal in both meetings a year ago.

The shutout victory was the seventh straight in ACC play for the Cavaliers and the 12th overall this season. The Virginia defense held the Cardinals to only two shots on night and only one on goal – that one saved by keeper Laurel Ivory (Surfside, Fla.) in the opening minutes of play.

“Obviously it was a great result for us against another quality opponent,” said Virginia head coach Steve Swanson. “Louisville is a good team, is very organized and hard working. We showed a lot of improvement from last week and that was good to see.”

McCool got the first goal of the night in the 23rd minute off a pass from Rebecca Jarrett (Washington Township, N.J.). Bringing the ball up the right side, Jarrett cut in toward the top of the box and played the ball ahead to McCool who was waiting just inside the 18. The senior turned and fired the left-footed shot and in the upper corner past the left post. 

The senior got her second goal of the night in the 58th minute, again striking from near the top of the box. This time freshman Diana Ordonez (Prosper, Texas) took a pass from Sydney Zandi (West Chester, Pa.) on a run down the middle of the field. As she approached the box, Ordonez laid the ball off to her left for McCool, who chipped the ball up over the keeper and in for the 2-0 lead.
 
The third goal of the night came in the final minute of play as the Alissa Gorzak (Naperville, Ill.) got the ball in the box, turned to make a shot but had it deflected by a Louisville defender. The deflected ball skipped toward the center of the box where it was collected by Zandi who put it in past the far post for the final 3-0 margin of victory.

Virginia will return to action on Sunday (Oct. 27), hosting Boston College at 1 p.m. It will close out the home portion of the regular season for the Cavaliers.