No. 12 Virginia Battles No. 5 West Virginia To 1-1 Draw
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 12 Virginia women’s soccer team (10-4-2) and No. 5 West Virginia (10-2-1) battled for 110 minutes to a 1-1 draw on Saturday (April 10) at Klöckner Stadium.
It was the second meeting between the team in eight days as the squads faced off at West Virginia on April 3.
Virginia took the early lead on Saturday, notching a goal from Diana Ordoñez (Prosper, Texas) in the 34th minute, but West Virginia found the late answer with a goal in the 82nd minute from Isabella Sibley to equalize and set up overtime. Neither team could find the golden goal down the stretch.
The first-half goal from Ordoñez came when Lizzy Sieracki (Acworth, Ga.) served a ball into the box to Ashlynn Serepca (Cornelius, N.C.), who tapped it over to Ordoñez. The sophomore forward turned and took her shot across the face of the goal, slipping it in past the near past to give the home team the 1-0 lead.
Virginia held the lead at the half and a 5-to-2 advantage in shots.
Each team had chances in the second, but instead of Virginia finding the net a second time it was West Virginia who found the equalizer. The Mountaineers played a ball out wide to Lauren Segalla who brought it down the right sideline before cutting it at the end line. Segalla served it in to Sibley for the one-touch shot from six yards out to tie the match.
Virginia got a pair of chances in the second overtime period when Lia Godfrey (Fleming Island, Fla.) narrowly missed on a free kick following a foul at the top of the box. The shot in the 107th minute slipped over the crossbar and play continued. Godfrey got another chance a minute later on another shot from a similar position that bent toward the back post, but West Virginia’s Kayza Massey made a leaping save to get her mitt on the ball and deflect it just wide.
NOTES ON THE GAME
• Virginia leads the all-time series with West Virginia 11-4-3 and 7-1-2 in games played in Charlottesville.
• The Cavaliers led in shots with a 12-to-6 advantage overall and a 6-to-3 advantage in shots on
• Diana Ordoñez now has a team-leading 22 points on nine goals and 4 assists this season.
• Lizzy Sieracki now has four assists this season, while Ashlynn Serepca notched her second assist of the year.
FROM HEAD COACH STEVE SWANSON
“It was much improved from last week, so we were happy with that. I thought we did enough things to win the game, especially in the two overtimes. I liked the way we fought and created chances and were the aggressor and that showed me something. We gave up the late goal, which is disappointing, but West Virginia is a good team and very physical. Our game plan was well executed and our players did a good job of creating more chances than we did last week. We had a lot of good performances. They’re goalkeeper made a tremendous save; we thought we had won it there, but she is an athletic keeper and made a great save.
The best part about today was our fans. It was great to have the fans back and our community back and to be playing in front of our faithful here at Klöckner again. This was an NCAA type game, so we have lot to feel good about going into the tournament and a lot to build on over the next few weeks.”
UP NEXT FOR THE HOOS
Virginia will now await the announcement of the NCAA Tournament field on Monday, April 19.