No. 3 Virginia Hosts No. 14 Penn State Thursday Night
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 3 Virginia women’s soccer team (6-0-0) returns home to host the Virginia Invitational this weekend and will face No. 14 Penn State (4-1-0) on Thursday (Sept. 9) in an 8 p.m. contest at Klöckner Stadium.
Also participating in the event are NC State (3-1-2) and Oklahoma (3-2-1). Those teams will face each other at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. Opponents will swap for Sunday’s games and the Cavaliers will face the Sooners at noon, while the Wolfpack will face the Nittany Lions at 3 p.m.
HOW TO FOLLOW THE ACTION
Thursday night’s match against Penn State will be broadcast on ACC Network and also streamed through ESPN.com and the ESPN app. Live Stats are also available and links to the broadcast and live stats are available at VirginiaSports.com. Fans can also get updates by following the program’s official Twitter account (@UVAWomenSoccer).
QUICK KICKS
• Claire Constant was named ACC Defensive Player of the Week by the league office after helping UVA post shutouts of No. 9 Santa Clara and JMU last week.
• Lia Godfrey hit her first goal of the season to lift UVA to victory over No. 9 Santa Clara on Thursday.
• Virginia now has two wins over top-25 opponents this season after defeating the Broncos.
• Godfrey and Alexa Spaanstra were joined by Haley Hopkins on the Hermann Trophy Watch List.
• Laurel Ivory is second all-time in career shutouts with 36 solo shutouts for her career at UVA. The win vs. Santa Clara moved her into second all-time in wins at UVA and has 57 wins in goal.
• Diana Ordoñez tallied a brace in the win over JMU, marking her eighth career game with multiple goals and second this season. It also marked her ninth career game-winning goal.
• UVA has had nine players score goals and nine players with assists through six games.
• Virginia ranks eighth nationally in goals with 20 and 16th in goals per game with 3.33 this season.
THE SERIES WITH PENN STATE
• Virginia and Penn State have met 15 times with the series tied 7-7-1 coming into Thursday night’s contest
• UVA won the first-ever meeting between the two teams in the 1997 season, a 5-2 victory in State College
• Virginia has won five straight in the series coming into Thursday night’s contest at Klöckner Stadium
• Three meetings between the teams have come in the NCAA Tournament with UVA going 2-1 in those meetings
• Five of the 15 games between the teams have been decided by one goal – including the last three contests
A LOOK AT THE NITTANY LIONS
• Penn State enters the week 4-1 after a 2-0 win at No. 12 West Virginia and a 2-1 loss at No. 18 UCF last week
• Payton Linnehan leads the Nittany Lions with five goals and two assists for 12 points this season
• The Nittany Lions have scored 12 goals this season and allowed only four goals through five games
• In goal, Katherine Asman has made 16 saves on 52 shots faced and allowed all four goals for the 4-1 record
• Asman has posted one solo shutout and a combined shutout this season for the Nittany Lions
UP NEXT FOR THE HOOS
Virginia closes the non-conference slate against Oklahoma at noon on Sunday (Sept. 12).