For the second time in October, the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country met in an ACC women’s battle. And for the second time, the No. 2 prevailed as Virginia edged Florida State, 1-0, on a disputedpenalty kick by Alexis Shaffer after Kristen Crowley was whistled for a handball and red carded in the 30th minute.
The call came after a pair of shots in succession. Veronica Latsko fired the first shot that clipped off the near post and to the feet of
“If the referee [Mohammad Samadpour] got it right, thencredit to him, he made the right choice,” said FSU head coach Mark Krikorian. “If he got it wrong, then he ruined a good game. It’s as simpleas that. If in fact it wasn’t a handball, it is too bad because there is another penalty that comes along with a red card in that you have to miss another game. In some ways, I hope it was alegitimate handball and red card as the penalty will fit the crime.”
It was the only goal of the match Cavaliers dominated with an 19-5 edge in shots.
“I think wewere clearly the better team, obviously, at the start,” said Virginia head coach Steve Swanson. “The turning point, obviously, was the red card. Wewould have liked to have seen a couple more go in, but it certainly wasn’t because we weren’t trying. We had opportunities. You have to give their goalie credit. We just didn’tfinish enough of our chances to make it a case where it was a definitive win. But having said that, I think we had a lot of players step up today in the absence of some players.”
The loss snapped FSU’s 19-game ACC unbeaten streak. The last time the ‘Noles lost a conference match was on October 27, 2013, a 1-0 overtime defeat at Virginia.
October 25 in Charlottesville, Virginia
Virginia 1 Florida State 0. Goal: Shaffer pen. 30.
Virginia — Stearns, Cox, McNabb, Iordanou, Sroba, Brandon, Torres, Shaffer, Ratcliffe, Doniak, Reuther. Subs: Petersen, Latsko, Adu, Sutton, Westrup.
Florida State — Miller, Schmid, Pickett, Edwards, Crowley, Connolly, Dorosy, Hahn, Tillman, Jensen, Williams. Subs: Grant, Thorvaldsdottir.
Att.:2,458.
If you consider how many times in matches with FSU in recent years Virginia has faced antagonistic refsthis dubious penalty was a bit of justice – also consider the number of fouls committed by each team: FSU 19(some of them very nasty!)VA 5 !!!!