Ordoñez's Hat Trick Pushes UVA Past Rice Into NCAA Quarterfinals
CARY, N.C. – Sophomore forward Diana Ordoñez (Prosper, Texas) turned in her second hat trick of the season to help push No. 13 Virginia (13-4-2) to a 3-0 victory over Rice (14-3-1) on Wednesday (May 5) in the Round of 16 of the NCAA Tournament at WakeMed Soccer Park.
Virginia advances to face fourth-seeded TCU (12-1-2) in the quarterfinals on Sunday (May 9). Kick is set for 5 p.m. ET in that match at WakeMed Soccer Park.
Rice was riding an 11-match unbeaten streak entering the contest, posting nine shutouts in that stretch of games and going 10-0-1 as part of that streak. The Owl defense had only surrendered 11 goals all season and had scored 38 goals prior to the match.
Virginia got on the board in the 37th minute with the Ordoñez penalty kick. The sophomore received the ball at the top of the box and as she made her turn to face the goal was hooked and pulled down from behind by a defender to set up the chance.
The Cavaliers extended the lead with a second-half goal from Ordoñez in the 68th minute. Taryn Torres (Frisco, Texas) drove a corner kick toward the back post for Ordoñez who headed it in for the 2-0 lead. She then added her third goal in the 82nd minute cleaning up a ball in the box that was served in by Lia Godfrey (Fleming Island, Fla.) following a corner kick.
The Virginia defense would continue to lock things down for the duration to pick up the shutout.
NOTES ON THE GAME
• Diana Ordoñez made it three straight games for a Cavalier to post a multiple-goal performance after Alexa Spaanstra had a brace in each of the first two NCAA Tournament games against SIUE and BYU.
• Ordoñez turned in her sixth multiple-goal game of her career.
• Ordoñez now has 12 goals for the season and extended her team lead in points to 29 for the season.
• Lia Godfrey was credited with her eighth assist of the season on the third goal of the night from Ordoñez.
• Virginia advances to the Elite Eight for the first time since the 2015 season when the Cavaliers hosted Rutgers in a quarterfinal match at Klöckner Stadium.
• It is the seventh time advancing to the NCAA quarterfinals under head coach Steve Swanson.
FROM HEAD COACH STEVE SWANSON
“It was great to get the result, but I thought our performance was great from start to finish. Rice is a good team. They were true to themselves. They’ve had a tremendous season and beaten a lot of good teams. For us to win as convincingly as we did; we executed our game plan really well and controlled most of the match. It wasn’t as easy as the score line. They are a good team that is very capable of counters and getting goals on set plays. We knew it would be a tough match and it was.”
“We created some really good chances against a very organized and deep team. D (Diana Ordoñez) was fantastic. She’s been close in the other games, but it was good to see her break through. She’s a pure goal scorer, but she did some other things really well for us tonight. Our whole front line is coming together. Rebecca Jarrett played well and even though Alexa (Spaanstra) didn’t get any goals her contributions to our attack are enormous.”