Sieracki’s first goal of season propels Virginia women to Final Four

By Kip Coons
Special to JerryRatcliffe.com

CARY, N.C. – Lizzy Sieracki found the perfect moment to net her first goal of the season.

The redshirt senior outside back for Virginia found the range just before the hour mark when she slammed home a header from 7 yards out to lift the Cavaliers past fourth-seeded TCU 1-0 on Sunday at windswept WakeMed Soccer Park.

The victory will send UVa (14-4-2), the only unseeded team to reach this year’s quarterfinals, into college soccer’s final four, the College Cup. Their opponent Thursday will be a familiar foe in ACC rival Florida State.

The top-seeded Seminoles (13-0-1) got past ninth-seeded Duke 5-3 in a penalty kick shootout after playing to a 0-0 tie through 110 minutes of regulation and two overtimes.

It will be UVa’s fourth appearance in the College Cup, and third under coach Steve Swanson. The Cavaliers were eliminated in a penalty shootout by eventual champion UCLA – which was coached by former UVa standout Amanda Cromwell — in the 2013 semifinals and fell to Florida State 1-0 in the 2014 final. In 1991, UVa fell 5-1 in the semifinals to North Carolina, which also went on to win the title.

UVa is the only team in the College Cup that has not won the NCAA title.

“With the tournament we have, even with just 48 teams, all the teams are good teams,” Swanson said. “There are no easy games. For us to get to where we’ve gotten is great. We’re proud of that, but we have a bigger goal. We’re trying to do something we haven’t done before, and we’re very focused on that at this point in time.”

Thursday’s semifinals will almost look like an ACC invitational, as second-seeded UNC (18-1-0) also joins the party after a 1-0 win over seventh-seeded Texas A&M. The fourth College Cup entry will be 11th-seeded Santa Clara (10-1-0), which denied the ACC an Elite Eight sweep by downing 14th seed Clemson 1-0.

UVa, UNC, and FSU were three of the four teams that reached the ACC Tournament semifinals as well, along with Duke. FSU edged UNC 3-2 to take the ACC championship back in November, also at WakeMed Soccer Park.

Sieracki, who picked up her third career goal, got her head on a perfectly struck corner kick from midfielder Lia Godfrey with 59:22 elapsed. The assist was the team-leading ninth of the season for Godfrey, the ACC Freshman of the Year.

TCU’s Emily Alvarado, the All-Big 12 Conference goalkeeper, had no chance on the shot as Sieracki met the ball at full speed and powered it  into the left side of the net.

“It was great to see Lizzy score that one,” Swanson said. “It was a superb corner kick by Lia. We’ve been working on our setpieces, and it’s moments like that that really make a difference.

“It was good to get the goal. We changed our formation a bit after that goal, so it couldn’t have come at a better time. We were bailing water a little bit there and lost the momentum we gained. The team did a great job of finishing out the game once we got the lead.”

Up until Sieracki’s goal, the Cavaliers enjoyed the run of play, which would be reflected by an 11-5 advantage in shots, 6-2 in the opening half.

Junior forward Rebecca Jarrett had an excellent opportunity to give the Cavs an early lead when she broke in from the right side to run onto a diagonal ball, but her volley sailed wide of the right post.

TCU (12-2-2) pushed back hard after Sieracki’s goal and had a great chance to level the match in the 66th minute.

Yazmeen Ryan blasted a shot from just inside the 18-yard  line that struck the crossbar and bounced straight down, and UVa goalkeeper Laurel Ivory picked it up a yard off the goal line on a bounce.

The no-goal call didn’t sit well with the TCU bench, and an assistant coach was shown a yellow card for dissent.

Ivory, who recorded a career-best 11 saves in a 2-0 second-round win over 12th seed BYU, made two saves on the day, but only one tested her. She steered Maddy Warren’s drive from 18 yards over the crossbar in the 82nd minute. The senior earned her 52nd career victory, 32nd career shutout, and third straight shutout in this tournament, having allowed only one goal in four tournament matches this month.

Alvarado also notched two saves, while TCU had a slim 5-4 edge in corner kicks. The Horned Frogs, at least for the first hour, were content to let UVa press the attack and control the ball, and it showed in the fouls. TCU committed 10 to UVa’s three, and remarkably the Cavaliers were not called for a foul in the entire second half while protecting their lead over the final 30 minutes.

“This was a really good TCU team that caused us problems,” Swanson said of the Big 12 champions. “They are the real deal. They took away some of what we did, and I give them a lot of credit. I give our players credit for seeing the game through and getting the victory.”