No. 7 Virginia Advances To ACC Semifinals Over No. 6 FSU

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A Victoria Safradin save in the sixth round of a penalty shootout followed by a successful attempt from Maya Carter pushed No. 7 Virginia (12-2-4) past No. 6 Florida State (10-2-4) on Sunday (Nov. 2) and into the semifinals of the ACC Tournament.

The teams played to a 0-0 draw through the first 110 minutes, setting up the penalty kick shootout and the result of the contest is officially entered as a draw.

GOALS
None

HOW IT HAPPENED
The squads played to a stalemate through regulation, with the Cavaliers firing off 12 shots to 15 for the Seminoles. Virginia’s defense stood tall through the two overtime periods, turning away the Seminole offense repeatedly to send the game to a shootout.

The teams each buried their first five chances in the shootout to send it to extra rounds. Florida State’s Giana Riley took the sixth chance for her team, sending the shot low and to the left of Safradin. The Virginia keeper dove, making the save as she got both hands on the ball and punched it wide of goal. Maya Carter then stepped to the spot for the Hoos and sent her shot to the upper left corner to send her team to the semifinals.

NOTES ON THE GAME

• Victoria Safradin made a career-high eight saves in the contest, passing her previous high of seven set against Louisville (10/18) earlier this season.
• With the draw, Virginia snapped a 70-game streak of consecutive games with a goal for Florida State that dated back to the 2022 season (10/13/22 at Duke).
• It marks the first time for Virginia to advance to the semifinals of the ACC Tournament since the 2021 season when the Cavaliers made it to the finals that season.
• It was the first shootout for the Cavaliers since the 2024 NCAA second-round game against Wisconsin.

FROM HEAD COACH STEVE SWANSON
“I saw a lot of heart to come down here after playing on Thursday and give the kind of effort we did; it was an amazing team win. Florida State is a great team and it’s hard to keep them off the scoreboard, but that was the difference in the game. We defended very well and put everything into this. I’m proud of the team. We had some players step up in the shootout and Viki was awesome. We have to get rested now, that was a physical battle for sure.”

UP NEXT FOR THE HOOS
Virginia advances to face the top-seed and second-ranked Stanford in the ACC Tournament semifinals on Thursday (Nov. 6). Kick is set for 8 p.m. and the contest will be broadcast on ACC Network. Tickets are available at TheACC.com.