Women’s Soccer: Hoos blank Nevada in season opener, 5-0

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Virginia got braces from freshman Allie Ross and sophomore Meredith McDermott as part of a 5-0 victory over Nevada in the season-opener on Thursday night at Klöckner Stadium.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Cavaliers (1-0-0) got on the board in the 27th minute as Allie Ross was taken down in the box to set up a penalty kick for the Hoos. The freshman stepped to the spot and buried the chance for her first collegiate goal. Ross then extended the lead in the 39th minute when a ball played in wasn’t corralled by the Nevada keeper after a Wolf Pack player deflected it and she buried the deflected ball for the 2-0 lead at the half.

Virginia added a third goal in the 53rd minute when another ball played in off a corner that was headed by Talia Staude and deflected by the keeper. Meredith McDermott cleaned it up from inside the six to give the Hoos the 3-0 lead.

McDermott notched a brace with her second goal in the 71st minute. A long ball played ahead by Aniyah Carter was collected by Ross who raced to the right corner of the box. She sent the ball over to McDermott who slotted the ball past the keeper for the 4-0 lead.

The Hoos capped the scoring in the 76th minute when Laughlin Ryan played a through ball ahead into the box that Brianna Jablonowski picked up in stride and sent in past the keeper toward the left post.

NOTES

• Allie Ross tallied her first collegiate goal as part of a brace with her two first-half goals.
• Ross tallied five points on the night as she also assisted on McDermott’s second goal of the night.
• The five points from Ross is the most since Alexa Spaanstra had five points against NC State (10/23/22).
• Meredith McDermott also tallied a brace with a pair of second-half goals.
• Senior Laughlin Ryan made her first career appearance and tallied her first assist on the Jablonowski goal.

FROM HEAD COACH STEVE SWANSON

“We got some good goals and played some good soccer at times and finished some good opportunities. I thought our set plays were very dangerous. One of the things we did much better tonight than in our preseason games was we valued the ball more and didn’t give it away cheaply. We got into the attacking third a lot and created a lot of good chances. They put a lot of players behind the ball and it was hard to break down, but we did what we needed to do to get our chances. There were a lot of good things, but a lot we have to keep working on.”

UP NEXT

Virginia returns to action on Sunday when the Cavaliers host Radford in a 6 p.m. contest at Klöckner Stadium.