Virginia Advances to ACC Semifinal with 4-3 Win Against Stanford

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Virginia field hockey team (15-1) opened the 2025 ACC Championship with a 4-3 victory over Stanford (7-10) in the quarterfinals on Tuesday (Nov. 4) at Trager Stadium to advance to the semifinals.

5:59 Stanford — Summer-Knight-Thomops (Bea Varley)
17:00 Virginia — Bella Moore (Lauren Sloan)
18:40 Virginia — Emma Watchilla (Suze Leemans)
19:58 Virginia — Emma Watchilla (Mary Adams)
43:10 Stanford — Nadine Brenninkmeyer (Esther Pottebaum)
47:01 Virginia — Mary Adams (unassisted)
48:59 Stanford — Maroussia Walckiers (unassisted)

HOW IT HAPPENED
Virginia advanced to the ACC Championship semifinal with a 4-3 victory over Stanford. The Cavaliers opened the game with two penalty corners in the first 70 seconds of play. Less than 10 minutes into the first quarter, Stanford found the back of the net first as Summer Knight-Thomps was assisted by Bea Varley. Unable to respond in the opening quarter, the Cardinals were up 1-0 going into the second quarter of play.Virginia turned up the heat in the second quarter, scoring three goals in under three minutes. First, freshman Bella Moore deflected the ball into the back of the net with the assist from fellow freshman Lauren Sloan. Moore scored her second goal of the season after scoring her first on Friday (Oct. 31) against Wake Forest. Shortly after, junior Emma Watchilla scored back-to-back goals to extend the Cavalier lead. Watchilla’s first goal was assisted by graduate student Suze Leemans while her second was assisted by freshman Mary Adams. This marks Watchilla’s second multi-goal game of her career. With Stanford unable to respond the score remained 3-1 at the half.

The battle continued into the third quarter as Stanford’s Nadine Brenninkmeyer scored in the closing minutes. After recording an assist, Adams netted a goal of her own and her fourth of the season to open the fourth quarter of play. Stanford responded with a goal of its own to keep the score close. Virginia was able to fend of the Cardinals attack in the final minutes to advance to the semifinal.

Starting in goal, Virginia’s Nilou Lempers recorded five saves while Stanford’s starting goalkeeper’s Anya Jackson and Daisy Ford each recorded two saves.

“I thought we started well mentally and then decided to take a step back and didn’t play 100% anymore. We kept them in the game too long and we should have scored more often to finish the game which we didn’t do. They caught fire at the end, allowing too many circle entries, too many shots, which is uncharacteristic of us and will address that before tomorrow. It is a tough turnaround playing a top 10 game on Friday and having a big win. A great win moving forward and we just need to recover to play again tomorrow.”

ON THE HORIZON
The 2-seeded Cavaliers will take on the winner of the 3-seeded Wake Forest vs 6-seeded Syracuse. The semifinal is scheduled to be played on Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 3:30 p.m. at Trager Stadium in Louisville, Ky.