By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE — The University of Virginia women’s soccer team has played 22 games this season, compiling a record of 16 wins, three losses and three ties. Two of those draws felt more like losses to the Cavaliers.
On Oct. 9, at Klöckner Stadium, Virginia gave up a goal to Syracuse in the 89th minute and had to settle for a 2-2 tie.
Four nights later, at Thompson Field in Blacksburg, UVA built a 3-1 lead, only to see Virginia Tech score two goals in the final 10 minutes, the second one with 41 seconds left in the match.
“Obviously at that point we were disappointed in letting games slip away,” Virginia head coach Steve Swanson said Monday. “Maybe we were in a position to win the game and we drew. But sometimes you need to go through those kinds of things to learn, and those were tough experiences for the team, but maybe necessary.”
In the NCAA tournament’s round of 16, UVA was the team playing from behind. Against host Penn State, one of the tournament’s No. 2 seeds, third-seeded Virginia trailed 1-0 at halftime and 2-1 with less than four minutes left in the second half. But the Wahoos pressed on. They had dominated the run of play in the second half, and they pulled even in the 88th minute when freshman Maya Carter headed classmate Maggie Cagle’s cross into the goal.
“We played to the end,” UVA forward Haley Hopkins said, “and during ACC play, that wasn’t [always] the case.”
Then came overtime, whose format the NCAA altered this year. Gone is the golden goal. Teams now play two 10-minute OT periods, after which, if the game remains tied, a penalty-kick shootout is held.
That wasn’t necessary on an arctic Sunday night at Jeffrey Field in State College, Pa. In the fourth minute of the first overtime, another Cagle assist, this one a pass to Hopkins, produced the goal that put the Hoos ahead 3-2, and that’s how the match ended after 110 minutes of fiercely contested soccer.
“We played and left absolutely everything we had out on the field tonight for 20 minutes [of overtime],” said Hopkins, a graduate student who leads Virginia with 13 goals this season. “We didn’t have anything left after the full 90, but everyone kicked it into another level. That was the first overtime that we’ve had to play, so it really was a good trial for us. We played to the absolute best of our ability.”
Swanson said: “I’m really proud of our team and the way they…