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Virginia Women’s Soccer Takes Down Clemson

Originally posted on Virginia Cavaliers on SI
By Val Prochaska  |  Last updated Sep 26, 2025 3:30 PM ET

Last year it took Virginia seven games (yikes!) to get nine points in ACC play.  The year before, it took eight games.  Without knowing what kind of contributions the team would get from their stellar recruiting class, I was expecting (sort of) much the same this year.  It is still early going, but Virginia has proved me wrong as the Hoos have taken nine points from their first three ACC games.  Plus, they now have a 9 – 0 – 1 record despite having played the hardest schedule in the women’s game.  And they are the #1 team in the country.

Fair to say that head coach Steve Swanson has righted the program.

Of course, player health is the lottery that determines so many outcomes.  Last year, even though Lia Godfrey and Laney Rouse returned after year-long absences, they were still playing at 60 – 70%.  Good enough to start, but not good enough to impact games.  It just took these two women longer to recover and they have responded by playing the best soccer of their careers.  (And that’s saying something, especially for Godfrey, who is a three-time All American.)   Godfrey’s play is Hermannesque, as in the MAC Hermann trophy, the game’s equivalent of the Heisman.  Two years after a knee injury, Godfrey has gotten faster, and while she’s always possessed vision and a cannon for a right foot, she now has breakaway speed, as she so ruthlessly demonstrated against Duke.  (We’ll come back to Rouse…)

For this game, Godfrey set the tone, spraying beautiful passes all game long, changing the point of attack (the holy grail for collegiate coaches) all by herself.  She opened the scoring fifteen minutes into the first half drilling a scudding, long-range shot past the Clemson keeper.  She was fortunate, the ball should have been saved.  But I can tell you that coaches have always preached that you take advantage of what the weather offers you and, in this case, the game had been delayed an hour by a deluge of rain.  A low, scudding ball on a slick surface might have been the best shot of all.

Last year, Godfrey had two goals and three assists in 19 games.  In just ten games this season, Lia has already scored six goals and dished out three assists.  And were it not for some profligate finishing, she would have racked up another pair of assists.  Godfrey might be the best player in women’s soccer this year.

Swanson delivered another halftime miracle as the Cavaliers scored just 45 seconds into the frame.  Maggie Cagle delivered a looping cross into the box that Meredith McDermott flicked first time past Clemson’s new keeper.  (Clemson feels they have two starter-caliber keepers and has been giving each one a half.  It was a rude introduction for that unfortunate keeper.)

It was the first goal of the season for McDermott, the team’s nominal starting center forward, and to be frank, she’s been flailing all season.  She is quick, but she is not a great dribbler and she has zero aerial presence.  The team has obviously been working on playing over the top for McDermott to run onto the ball the past couple of weeks.    And it felt like it has been coming for a while now, and on this day, it did.  Virginia fans can only hope that now that the burden of going scoreless has been released, a more relaxed Meredith McDermott will continue to find the back of the net.

Here's the third goal, a Cagle cross that oh-so-similarly finds Allie Ross in the box.  The finish is sublime as Ross re-directs the ball to the left (having it come from the right.)  Just three minutes before, after some brilliant, tight interplay in the Clemson box, Ross had been gifted a point-blank, wide-open goal that she botched by blasting right at the keeper.  I think it is safe to say that Ross made up for that error with this finish. 3 – 0 to the Cavaliers and it was game over.

One of the changes the team made for this game was to play Cagle, usually a winger, much farther back, more as a second wide midfielder (alongside Jill Flammia.)  Both of Cagle’s assists were delivered from what I call the Beckham Channel (after David Beckham):  wide of the penalty box, 30 – 35 yards from the end line.  Becks made a career of playing balls from here, and it was obviously part of the game plan as Cagle made at least three crosses from the Beckham Channel in the first half.

On the defensive side, the back line and keeper Victoria Safradin continue to impress.  Laney Rouse, like Godfrey has bounced back from a sub-par year last season to play the best ball of her career.  Other than the goals, the most entertaining feature of this game was the one v one battle between Rouse and Clemson’s Natalie Brooks.  Brooks absolutely went at Rouse with pace and verve all game long.  Brooks is going to be great one day, but Rouse absolutely shut her down.

Rouse and Godfrey are rare specimens on the new collegiate scene:  sixth-year seniors who have been with their program their entire careers.  Both were lost for the season two years ago and both returned to the pitch last year amidst disappointing team and personal seasons.  In both cases, they are proving the adage about adversity making you stronger.

As for Clemson, there are some what-ifs.  Last game out, away versus #3 Stanford, Clemson was down 2 – 0 with nine minutes to go, and yet they eked out the tie.  This Virginia lead wasn’t safe.  And just five minutes into the game, Clemson had a wonderful chance off a corner kick, but Safradin made an all-world save and Maggie Cagle followed that with a goal-line clearance.  Had Clemson scored, it would certainly have been a different game, but that’s mostly just speculation for frustrated players and coaching staff.

Highlights: Wow. The Virginia social media team finally woke up from their collective slumber and produced a highlight vid for the team. Which means you can see Safradin's save and all the angles from Allie Ross's finish. 'Bout time.

Next Up:  Virginia has a long break, not hosting Virginia Tech until Saturday, October 4th.  Game time is 7:00pm.  While Tech generated some Top 25 buzz this pre-season, they are crashing and burning right now and I think it will be an auspicious time for me to make my annual trip to Charlottesville.


This article first appeared on Virginia Cavaliers on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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