Virginia shuts out Fairleigh Dickinson 4-0 in NCAA opening round

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The third-seeded Virginia women’s soccer team sealed the deal with a three-goal second half on the way to a 4-0 shutout of Fairleigh Dickinson in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday at Klöckner Stadium.

GOALS
7’ – Haley Hopkins (Maggie Cagle)
60’ – Alexa Spaanstra (Unassisted)
83’ – Talia Staude (Sarah Clark)
84’ – Meredith McDermott (Unassisted)

HOW IT HAPPENED
Virginia (14-3-3) got on the board in the seventh minute when Maggie Cagle found Haley Hopkins for a header at point-blank range. A foul in the box on Cagle set up a Hopkins penalty kick that was saved, but not controlled, by the FDU keeper. Cagle collected the rebound and reset the offense. She dribbled down the right side of the box before sending the cross in to Hopkins who finished with the header from a yard out.

Virginia got its second goal from Alexa Spaanstra on a penalty kick set up as the forward was clipped from behind and went down in the box while receiving the ball near the spot for potential scoring opportunity.

Virginia connected once again with a goal from Talia Staude in the 83rd minute. Staude found the back of the net with a header from the left side of the box off a corner from Sarah Clark.

Virginia’s final goal came from freshman Meredith McDermott. McDermott found the left bottom corner of the goal after beating her man on a breakaway up the left side of the field, cutting into the box before converting her chance.

84′ | UVA 4, FDU 0

Meredith McDermott adds to the lead with her first collegiate goal!

📺 Watch On ESPN+#GoHoos🔶⚔️🔷 | #ALLIN⚽️🔥 pic.twitter.com/WPLfg3HIDv

— Virginia Women’s Soccer (@UVAWomenSoccer) November 13, 2022

NOTES ON THE GAME
• Haley Hopkins’s goal was her team-leading 12th goal of the season.
• Hopkins’s goal is her first NCAA Tournament goal as a Cavalier.
• Hopkins net a hat trick in Virginia’s previous meeting with FDU (8-11-3) earlier this season, scoring 3 goals in the first 14 minutes of the game.
• Tonight’s win is Virginia’s 25th consecutive NCAA First Round Win.
• Alexa Spaanstra’s goal was her eighth goal of the season, 37th of her career to tie for seventh in career goals alongside Alexis Shaffer (2013-2016).
• Virginia goalkeeper Cayla White earned her ninth shutout of the season, 11th of her career. The nine shutouts this year is tied for 10th most in a season, while the 11 career shutouts is tied for seventh all-time at UVA.
• Maggie Cagle had her sixth game-winning assist and has 10 total assists on the season.
• Staude’s goal in the 83rd minute is her first of the season. Staude’s last NCAA Tournament goal was against SIU-E in the first round on April 28th, 2021.
• McDermott’s goal in the 84th minute is her first career goal. The last time a freshman scored in an NCAA Tournament game was Diana Ordoñez, against Washington State on November 22, 2019.

FROM HEAD COACH STEVE SWANSON
“It was a good win. We are very happy to be moving on. Congratulations to Fairleigh Dickinson, I thought they had a great season, obviously, they won their conference championship. They played hard and it was a competitive game. There are things we can take away from this game. We did some good things, but we’ve got to be more consistent in how we manage games like this. We won, which is good, but when you win and you can learn some things and apply those to the next game, that’s a good thing, too.”

UP NEXT
Virginia will face Xavier in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The time and location of the second-round game have yet to be determined as the other half of the bracket’s pod will play on Sunday.