McCormack’s Return Boosts Hoos as Postseason Nears

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Late last month in Bogota, Colombia, Yuna McCormack and Maddie Dahlien helped the United States edge the Netherlands 2-1 to capture the bronze medal at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.

Six days later, in Chapel Hill, N.C., they took the field again, but this time as Atlantic Coast Conference rivals, with McCormack suiting up for Virginia and Dahlien for North Carolina.

“It’s bizarre,” UVA head coach Steve Swanson said of that situation.

It’s not unprecedented, though, as Swanson well knows. In 2012, he was head coach of the U.S. team that won the gold medal at the U-20 Women’s World Cup in Japan, and his roster included players from several ACC schools, including UVA.

McCormack, a sophomore midfielder from Mill Valley, Calif., near San Francisco, missed eight Virginia games while out of the country with the national team. As difficult as it was for her to be away from her fellow Cavaliers, she cherished her time with the U.S. squad.

The bronze medal marked the United States’ best finish at a U-20 World Cup since Swanson and Co. won gold in 2012.

“I just feel like playing in a World Cup is just the ultimate experience for a soccer player,” McCormack said. “Being in Colombia, all the fans are super passionate about soccer, and I could really feel that while I was there. The stadiums were packed, and everyone was just so passionate about the game. And being able to play in those big stadiums, that was just super exciting. And coming home with a bronze medal, we definitely wanted gold, but that was a big moment for us too.”

She relished the opportunity to play “with the best players in the country and against the best players in the world. It’s another level of soccer, just the speed of the game. It’s just so fast, and you just have to make those decisions that much quicker. But it really helps you grow and see what it’s like to play at the top level.”

McCormack went through preseason with the Wahoos in August and played in their first two games—wins over Towson and Northwestern—before leaving to join the U.S. team. She returned to Charlottesville on Sept. 24 and attended her first classes of the semester that week.

Keeping up with her classes remotely from South America was challenging, said McCormack, who’s likely to major in media studies at UVA.

“It’s definitely tough to find the motivation to do your schoolwork while you’re away,” she said, “but I just really had to stay on top of everything, and I think I did a good job for the most part.”

Back in Charlottesville, McCormack faced other challenges, as Swanson knew she would.

“It’s not easy for several reasons,” said Swanson, who’s in his 25^th season at Virginia. “She’s got to catch up on her school. She’s got to get back in with our team. We’re on the road as well. She comes back from Colombia and then, boom, we’re off to North Carolina and we’re playing a tough stretch to get her back into.”

On the field, “you’re playing with the same people for 30, 35 days, and then to come back and all of a sudden get thrust back into [a college team], it’s challenging,” Swanson said. “Morgan Brian did it [in 2012], and it was really hard for her.”

It helped that McCormack had trained with the Cavaliers all spring and during the preseason, Swanson said. “So the positive side is, she developed, but the tough side is you had two games with her and now you gotta play without her for eight games, and then you bring her back in. So there’s definitely some transitional difficulties there. But she’s such a big part of our team and she really opens up a lot of things for us, particularly on the attack, and she’s really been a workhorse for us on both sides of the ball. It’s really good to have her back.”

McCormack said: “It’s definitely tough, just being with a different team for a whole month and then coming back. But after two games I feel like I got back into it and I’m in a good position now.”

In Colombia, McCormack played in every one of the United States’ matches. Her assist on Jordynn Dudley’s game-winning goal in extra time helped the U.S. defeat Mexico and advance to the World Cup semifinals, and McCormack scored goals against Morocco and Paraguay in group play.

“She did amazingly well,” Swanson said. “She got herself into the starting lineup and it was hard to keep her out of that.”

Dudley plays for Florida State, and she and McCormack will be on opposite sides Thursday night. At 7 o’clock, in a game to air on ESPNU, the No. 23 Cavaliers (10-4 overall, 3-4 ACC) meet the No. 22 Seminoles (8-2-2, 3-2-1) in Tallahassee, Fla.

In 2023, the Hoos missed the NCAA tournament for the first time in Swanson’s tenure, but they’re well-positioned to make it back this fall.

“We just have a really great group this year,” McCormack said. “We set out big goals for ourselves, and I think we can achieve them.”

McCormack, who wears jersey No. 7, has contributed one goal and two assists in her six games this season.

“Yuna is a unique blend,” Swanson said. “If you talk to Yuna, you can see she’s soft-spoken, very shy, humble. But she’s actually a warrior. She competes very hard and you know what you’re going to get every game from her. She works her tail off, and she’s such a talent on the ball. She was so important to us from a creative standpoint and from an offensive standpoint. She scored a goal the minute she gets back, for us at North Carolina, and gave us a real injection.

“She’s such a big part of our team. If you were around her at training, there are other people that are talking more than she is or being more vocal than she is. She’s not a screamer or a yeller or anything like that. But she still commands a lot of respect.”

McCormack, whose mother is from Japan, has dual citizenship, and she trained with Japan’s U-20 team in France after the 2023-24 school year ended. At the time, she wasn’t sure if she’d be selected for the U.S. team that would play at the World Cup, but she impressed the coaches with her play at a pre-tournament camp this summer.

“That was super exciting,” said McCormack, a veteran of U.S. national age-group teams, “and I just felt really proud of myself that I made the team, especially after not being invited to the first few camps and just really proving myself in the last one.”

Born and raised in the San Francisco area, McCormack enrolled at UVA in January 2023. She didn’t have any family connections to the University, “but I always knew that they were a good soccer program,” McCormack said, “and then once recruiting started, just getting to know the coaching staff and then actually seeing the campus here, it’s just so beautiful. I just thought it was a great fit for me.”

Even so, she said, her first year at UVA “was tough for me, being far away from home and just getting used to being in Virginia. But now I really love being here. It’s just so beautiful, all the people are so nice, and I just feel like I’m finding my place here.”

Swanson noted that the “transition was difficult for Yuna, particularly with the way her family interacts and how close they are. I know she was homesick and I know she went through some trials of not being closer to her family, but I’ve also seen an enormous amount of growth, more confidence. She’s got to fend for herself a little bit more, and she’s got to be more assertive.

“Things like that are part of growing up. She’s on her own more, and so the onus is on her. I’ve seen some amazing changes in her in terms of her confidence, her communication, her assertiveness, those kinds of thing, that I think are gonna hold her well down the road. She’s growing up, and that’s what college is all about. She’s always been a great student, so that’s not been [an issue], but I think just being on her own and living her life a little further away from her family, those things have added something more to her and she’s had to reach inside herself a little bit more. I see a more confident, assertive, responsible person.”

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