Virginia Shuts Out No. 12 Seed BYU To Advance To Sweet 16
CARY, N.C. – The No. 13 Virginia women’s soccer team (12-4-2) continued to advance in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday (May 1), picking up a win over No. 17 BYU (11-4-1) by a score of 2-0 at WakeMed Soccer Park. BYU was the No. 12 seed in the tournament while Virginia is unseeded.
Virginia will face Rice (14-2-1) in the third-round match on Wednesday (May 5). First kick is set for 9 p.m. at WakeMed Soccer Park. The Owls advanced with a 1-0 victory over fifth-seeded West Virginia. Rice got a penalty kick goal, scoring on its only shot of the game.
Alexa Spaanstra (Brighton, Mich.) turned in a brace for the second straight game, scoring in each half to lead the Cavalier offense. Laurel Ivory (Surfside, Fla.) picked up the clean sheet and earned her 50th career victory in goal as she made 11 saves on 19 shots faced.
The Cavaliers weathered an early offensive onslaught from the Cougars as BYU managed five shots in the first 20 minutes before Virginia would get its first chance. – a shot from Lia Godfrey (Fleming Island, Fla.) that sailed high.
Virginia struck in the 34th minute when Spaanstra got a ball from Taryn Torres (Frisco, Texas) out wide on the right side of the field. She knocked it forward off the bounce, settled it and took the shot in stride across the face of the goal and in past the back post for the 1-0 lead.
The Cavaliers extended the lead in the 64th minute when Spaanstra struck again. This time Lizzy Sieracki (Acworth, Ga.) took the throw in and sent it long into the box. Diana Ordoñez headed it down and over toward Spaanstra near the penalty mark who fired it past the keeper.
The Virginia defense shut things down the rest of the way, turning away repeated attacks from the Cougars to pick up the victory and advance in the tournament field.
ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE GAME
• Spaanstra’s brace was her fifth multiple-goal game of her career and second consecutive brace.
• Diana Ordoñez maintained the team lead in points with her assist. It is her fifth assist of the season for 23 total points.
• Ivory tallied a career-high 11 saves and faced a career-high 19 shots in the second-round matchup.
• Virginia returns to the Round of 16 for the 15th time in the last 16 seasons with the win over BYU.
• With the victory, the Cavaliers are now 2-0-0 all-time against the Cougars of BYU.
• The shutout came against the nation’s third-ranked offense as BYU averaged 3.13 goals per game and had a nation-leading 47 goals this season.
• The shutout also snapped a streak of 53 straight games in which BYU had scored a goal.
FROM HEAD COACH STEVE SWANSON
“This was a really good BYU team we played. They hadn’t been shut out all year, so our defense deserves a lot of credit. Our whole team effort was great today. We have a lot of respect for BYU. They played a great match and had a great season. We did the things we needed to do to win the game and we converted our chances. At this point and in this tournament, that’s what you have to do. You have to find a way to win. We did today. We had some good moments, but there were others where we had to weather the storm and we did a good job of that.”