[ACC: Women] Virginia’s perfect season ended Friday as the No. 1 Cavaliers fell to No. 5 Virginia Tech, 4-2, in the semifinals of the ACC Women’s Tournament inCary, N.C. The Hokies, who had lost their last five meetings to the Cavaliers by a margin of 18-0, moved into Sunday’s final against No. 3 Florida State, a 2-1 winner over No. 4 North Carolina inovertime. Both Seminole goals came on own goals.
Only eight days earlier, Virginia had beaten Virginia Tech, 2-0, to finish the regular season with a 19-0-0 record, and the Cavs added a20th win with a 6-1 demolition of Maryland in the first round of the ACC Tournament.
But Jazmine Reeves’ two first-half goals put VirginiaTech ahead 2-1 at the half, and the Hokies put the game away with two more goals in the second half.
“I am so proud of this team,” said Virginia Tech coach
Emily Sonnett had scored for UVa between Reeves’ goals in thefirst half, but the killer Hokie goal came from forward Murielle Tiernan, who headed in Jordan Coburn’s cornerjust five minutes into the second half for a 3-1 Hokies lead.
The Cavaliers had their chances — Alexis Shaffer came close twice — but Hokiesmidfielder Katie Yensen then made it 4-1 in the 70th minute when she headed home a 10-yarder off an assist from KellyLoupee. Makenzy Doniak’s goal with seven minutes left brought the Cavaliers to within two goals.
“We didn’t do the thingswe needed to do tonight to get the win,” Virginia coach Steve Swanson said. “We’ve done those things over the course of the year. You goback, you look at the film, you make some adjustments. There’s certainly some teachable moments for us, certainly some things we can take away heading into the NCAA Tournament. I think this isjust the way soccer is sometimes. You have to take the good with the bad, and we’ve had a lot of good this year.”
FLORIDA STATE-NORTHCAROLINA. Meg Morris had put Carolina ahead early in the second half with her first goal of the season and the first goal FSU had given up to the TarHeels since 2011, a streak spanning four matches. Carolina was within three minutes of pulling out the victory when goalie Kelsey Wys played a free kick downthe middle of the field toward Kristin Grubka, but the ball deflected off the head of a Carolina player and into the net for the tying goal.
The game-winner came in the 93rd minute when Jamia Fields sent a cross into the six-yard box from the right side. The ball traveled past two Carolina defendersand then off Satara Murray’s leg as she came flying in to cover the far post, and inside the left post for the golden goal.
“I’mnot sure from an aesthetic point of view that any of the purists are walking away thinking that we saw a great technical game, but we saw two very strong heavyweight teams go out there andbattle,” Florida State head coach Mark Krikorian said. “Sometimes it is a matter of going out and competing, fighting and giving yourself achance.”
Florida State now has six wins against North Carolina, tying Notre Dame for the most wins against the Tar Heels in their storied history.