Virginia Advances to ACC Semifinals with a 2-1 Win over Wake Forest

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The Virginia field hockey team (4-6) opened the 2020 ACC Field Hockey Championships with a 2-1 victory over Wake Forest (2-8) on Thursday (March 5) in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Sophomore striker Laura Janssen (Nijmegen, Netherlands) scored twice off assists from sophomore back Cato Geusgens (Wassnaar, Netherlands) – the second time for what proved to be the winning score with 13:49 remaining in the match – lifting the fourth-seeded Cavaliers to a 2-1 win over fifth-seeded Wake Forest.

Virginia advances to Friday’s 1:30 p.m. semifinal match versus top seed Louisville (7-1).

HOW IT HAPPENED

Virginia struck first near the one-minute mark of the opening period versus Wake on Thursday, as Janssen scored off a redirect from Geusgens on a penalty corner.

Wake Forest knotted the score at 1-1 midway through the third period on Alexis Grippo’s penalty stroke goal.

The score remained tied until the opening moments of the fourth quarter, when Geusgens found Janssen again at the 13:49 mark to put Virginia in front to stay.

FROM HEAD COACH MICHELE MADISON
“We connected well on the field today. They drove the game plan and created opportunities against a well-coached Wake Forest team. Defensively, the team worked hard but we will have to work harder tomorrow against Louisville, the top seed in this tournament. I am very proud of the total, team-driven performance today and the way we ‘stepped-up’ to meet the challenge.”

FROM LAURA JANSSEN

“It was pretty intense. I felt like we were dominating. they kept hitting balls into our pressure. I’m glad we finished that. For our corner attack, they kept trying to get me to take the ball from the right side. I feel like we’ve been doing that a lot, and it worked. I’m glad it worked. Today we practiced hard to get those balls and Kato’s delivery was perfect.”

NOTES

• Laura Janssen’s goals were her sixth and seventh of the season. She has scored in four of her last six games
• Virginia goalkeeper junior Lauren Hausheer (West Windsor, N.J.) made six saves, four of which came in the second half
• The Virginia goalkeeping tandem of Hausheer and sophomore Taylor Henriksen (Falls Church, Va.) lead the ACC with a combined 55 saves this season
• Tori Glaister made two saves for Wake Forest with Olivia Cothals also making a defensive save
• Virginia held a 12-9 edge in shots
• Virginia had six penalty corners, scoring on two of them. Wake Forest had two penalty corners