UVA SHUTS OUT CARDS IN CHARLOTTESVILLE
A rough night, offensively, for the Louisville Women's Soccer on the road last night as #11 ranked Virginia got two first half goals from Alexa Spaanstra and shut out the visiting Cards 2-0. The game action was Spaanstra's first -- since twisting her ankle against Clemson in the Cavs third game of the season.
Louisville got outstanding goal-play again from goalkeeper Gabby Kouzelos against the attack-oriented Cavaliers, Kouzelos had 10 saves for Louisville against the UVA attackers -- and made several diving deflections and stops of Cavalier goal attempts...otherwise, the score could have been a lot higher for the home-standing Cavs.
Ball possession was definitely in favor of Virginia in the first half against a Louisville defense that was trying to get the ball back for some semblance of offense for the Cards but largely unable to do so. The Cavalier's attack finally paid off when Spaanstra, back from injury, took a cross during the UVA attack and sent a rocket past Kouzelos in the 24th. minute of play.
The Cavs would score again ten minutes later when Spaanstra was award a penalty kick in front of goalkeeper Kouzelos for alleged interference from a Cards defender. Kouzelos dived to her left as the shot was fired but Spaanstra sent the ball in the other direction and it found the top corner of the net for the game's final goal.
Virginia held a 12-0 shot advantage after 45 minutes of play and the combo of Emina Ekic and Delaney Snyder for the Cards had been held in check.
Although the Cards came out with an improved offensive intensity in the second half, they could not get the ball in the net. Louisville's best chance to score came when Nadage L'Esperance drilled a shot toward net midway through the final half but the ball bounced off the crossbar and UVA retained possession.
Delaney Snyder played just 46 minutes of the contest. No immediate reason was clear or provided why she played just half of the game and Snyder did not seem to be injured. It could have been Louisville head coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes trying to shake things up on the attack for the Cards. Ferguson-Dayes did use freshmen Jessica Camken (53 minutes) and Savina Zamborini (45 minutes) as replacements on the field. Camken was responsible for Louisville's only other shot-on-goal in the contest.
Possession time was clearly in favor of UVA with a 64% to 36% advantage and the Cavs took 24 shots, compared to Louisville two.
With the loss, the Cards fall to 3-2 on the season and will try to right the ship when they travel to Blacksburg, VA for a Sunday contest against Virginia Tech. A VT squad that scored a Hokie-history high eight goals in their 8-2 win over Miami last night to improve to 2-6 on the season.
Have a Fortunate Friday...
pauiie
OK, so who's right here? I did not watch the match but Go Cards is reporting a 2-1 score last night. Typo, Paulie?
ReplyDeleteNick O.
Probably a mis-print by UofL. I assure you, the Cards did not score, I watched the whole game. Cards WSOC SID Nick Evans is recovering from successful hip surgery and did not have the recap, so that might be part of it.
Deletepaulie
Yeah, I was off work last night and was able to watch the loss and the Cards did not score on UVA.
ReplyDeleteCurtis "Be Kind" Frenklin