Virginia Women’s Soccer Outlasts Liberty for the Win

The series between Virginia and Liberty has been particularly lopsided, with the Cavaliers winning all 16 previous games by a combined score of 75 – 1.  Last game out, Virginia won 6 – 0, but that was pre-COVID and before Land Wedemeyer arrived at Lynchburg.  Two years ago, Liberty won the Conference USA tournament, and last year the Flames won 15 games en route to the regular season title.  This year, Liberty is expected to romp through Conference USA, as they placed seven players on the pre-season first team.

Today was always going to be harder.

For the first 15 minutes, Virginia and Liberty played an attractive, end-to-end game with Virginia resorting to the bugaboo of recent seasons:  extreme profligacy in front of goal.  Twice, Virginia got into the box as the result of lovely build-up play, only to fail to pull the trigger.  Liberty, for its part, carved up the Cavalier defense on two occasions, only to fire a couple of lame shots.  The battle for midfield was interesting as Liberty proved the better team as far as on-ball tackling goes.

With 15 minutes gone, Liberty’s Briana Myers twisted her ankle sliding into a blocked shot and was lost for the game.  She was the base of the Liberty midfield, and to be frank, they never recovered.  (Can we just stipulate that injuries suck).

Virginia would get nice shots from Meredith McDermott, Sophia Bradley, Carrie Helfrich, and Pearl Cecil, who pulled off a Maradona-esque turn at the top of the box.  Laney Rouse got baseline and wasted a cross that was five yards in front of two on-rushing strikers. Virginia had a 12 – 3 shots advantage and a 4 – 0 advantage in corners, and the score was still 0 – 0 at the half.

The second half continued as the first had ended:  Virginia was dominating in midfield, and while Liberty’s Ivy Garner was looking quite bright down the right wing, she got very little support. The tide turned 15 minutes into the half as Virginia just wore down Liberty, and fatigue became the enemy.  The Flames were just a step slower, and they stopped winning the tackles they had won in the first frame.  Liberty was substituting freely – Coach Wedemeyer would play 20 players for the game – but Steve Swanson matched Liberty with fresh legs of their own.

With 13 remaining, and Virginia firmly in the driver’s seat, the Hoos won a free kick 28 yards out.  Lia Godfrey's territory.  There are few women in the college game who strike a dead ball as well as Godfrey, and for the second straight game, she slotted home the free kick.  1 – 0, and Virginia had the win.