Charlottesville, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW): A recent run of excellent form for the Hoos has come to an end, as the UVA Women’s Soccer team fell in a ranked, road battle. The #23 ranked Hoos were felled by the #22 Florida Seminoles 4-0. The normally reliable UVA defense looked off balance and out of sorts early on. They conceded early, as Taylor Huff thundered home a Ran Iwai corner kick to give the Seminoles the early advantage. Four minutes later, an error by keeper Victoria Safradin came off her line and clipped a Seminole attacker trying to collect a pass during a dangerous passage of play. Solai Washington coolly took the penalty after the review and doubled the Noles lead. More defensive errors compounded the nightmare first half for the Hoos, as a bad clearance found the foot of Jordyn Dudley, who headed the ball back into the box, and Wrianna Hudson timed her run perfectly to control the ball and crash it home, and with fifteen minutes left in the first half, it was 3-0 Seminoles. The Hoos looked more at ease coming out of the interval, but the Noles were not done scoring, as Gianna Riley used her stellar dribbling skills to create an angle from nothing and struck the ball with authority to bring the score to 4-0. The Virginia attack could muster nothing to trouble the FSU defense, and the score held for the rest of the second half. Head Coach Steve Swanson after the game was honest, shouldering the blame, saying “I need to take full responsibility for the result tonight. It is pretty clear we were not prepared to play at the level we needed to for this match. That is completely on me.” The Hoos have one final chance to notch points at home in the regular season, as they welcome Clemson next Friday at Klockner Stadium, kickoff is at 7:00 PM and the broadcast is carried by ACCNX.
