Women’s Soccer: No. 22 FSU shuts out No. 23 Virginia, 4-0

By Colin Moore
JerryRatcliffe.com correspondent

A relentless Florida State attack forced the No. 23 Virginia women’s soccer team to battle for the entire 90 minutes on Thursday night at Seminole Soccer Complex in Tallahassee, as the 22nd-ranked Seminoles came away with a 4-0 victory.

UVA goalkeeper Victoria Safradin and the Cavalier defenders were under pressure most of the night. The Seminoles (9-2-2, 4-2-1 ACC) played with a very high attacking line, which put the Hoos under pressure and led to the FSU having more possession and opportunities.

HOW IT HAPPENED 

The Seminoles’ first goal occurred in the 20th minute from a Florida State corner kick. Ran lwai took the corner kick with her left foot and floated it inside the box, where Taylor Huff was able to head the ball past Safradin for the opening goal of the match.

An unfortunate call occurred in the 24th minute when Safradin was forced to come off of her line. When doing so, she slightly mistimed it and touched Salai Washington, who went down. The referee decided to go to the monitor, but after review, the call stood with a penalty kick. Washington stepped up and took the PK for the Seminoles. Safradin guessed correctly by diving to her right, but was unlucky to not save the shot as she was able to get a touch to the ball.

The Hoos showed encouraging signs at times as there were occasional stretches where they were able to show some quality with long possessions, but fizzling short before the attacking third. If it weren’t for some huge Safradin saves and timely tackles by Moira Kelley and Tatum Galvin, the score could have been worse.

Florida State’s third goal of the first half came from a long ball from the outside back. Safradin decided to come off her line and unfortunately mistimed her punch, allowing Jordynn Dudley to head the ball to wide open Wrianna Hudson, who had an easy tap-in with no one in goal.

The Cavaliers (10-5-0, 3-5-0) battled hard on both ends of the field in the second half. Safradin made two tremendous saves early to keep the Seminoles from scoring right out of halftime. The Hoos produced a few opportunities within the first 15 minutes of the half, earning two corner kicks. Unfortunately, the chances didn’t go to plan, as the Cavaliers had some great short corner kick plays drawn up, because FSU had more height.

Giana Riley provided a great individual effort in the 76th minute to get the Seminoles their fourth and final goal of the match. Riley received a long ball behind the Cavaliers’ back line and hesitated before making a step over to clear some space, and then curled in a shot in off Safradin’s post.

GOALS
FSU: 20’ – Taylor Huff (Ran Iwai)
FSU: 24’ – Solai Washington (Penalty Kick)
FSU: 31’ – Wrianna Hudson (Jordan Dudley)
FSU: 76’ –  Giana Riley (Marianyela Jimenez)

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• The four FSU goals were the most the Cavaliers have conceded all season (the most since 2021 in a 4-2 loss to Penn State)
• FSU had six FIFA U-20 Players that were away on international duty (4 from USA, 1 Jamaica, 1 )

FROM HEAD COACH STEVE SWANSON

“I need to take full responsibility for the result tonight. It is pretty clear we were not prepared to play at the level we needed to for this match. That is completely on me. Florida State is a very good team, and they won every phase of this match, and the score reflected that. Full credit to them.”

UP NEXT

The Cavaliers face Clemson at home on Friday at 7 p.m. for their annual Breast Cancer Awareness game.