Virginia celebrates with Laughlin Ryan after she scored her first career goal in a win against Towson. ~ Photo by Kris Wright/TheSabre.com
Virginia women’s soccer coach Steve Swanson oversaw an unusual season opener Thursday night at Klockner Stadium. For the first time in his tenure, after all, the Hoos started a season after missing the previous NCAA Tournament. The results, however, looked familiar.
UVA eventually took down Towson, 2-0, in front of 1,110 fans in attendance. That pushed the program’s record to 20-1 in season openers at home under Swanson’s leadership. The Cavaliers controlled possession in dominant fashion and piled up a 24-3 advantage in shots as a result.
Given that the Tigers made the NCAA Tournament field and led ACC powerhouse North Carolina for nearly 20 minutes in that first round game before falling 3-1 last fall, the result was welcomed by a Virginia team looking to bounce back from an injury-challenged 2023 season. Swanson praised the visitors as organized and hard-working to provide a solid test in the first game of the season.
“Great opener. Towson’s a great team. They were super organized and were really dangerous in transition,” Virginia junior forward Maggie Cagle said. “We definitely had some things that we wanted to look out for with them. Great opener, great 2-0 start to the season, and huge for us to get a win.”
Cagle provided one of the team’s two goals on the night, an insurance blast courtesy of a penalty kick in the 85th minute (84:21). She cut off a defender’s angle on the way to the left side of the box and then crashed to the turf while trying to gather the ball. The referee issued a yellow card and Cagle calmly fired in the PK for the 2-0 final margin.
After she tied with Meredith McDermott for the team lead in goals last season (8), that result wasn’t surprising. The same can’t be said of UVA’s other goal.
That’s because the Hoos took a 1-0 lead in the 34th minute (33:28) when Laughlin Ryan knocked home the first goal of her career. The senior midfielder missed three consecutive seasons due to three separate ACL injuries, but she continued to stick with the team and worked through those rounds of rehab to get back on the field.
The long journey paid off when she got the ball over the keeper.
“I’ve never scored before,” Ryan said smiling. “I mean my first three years here I didn’t play, so it’s obviously a really exciting moment and first goal. It was just exciting. I was just pumped to see it go in.”
Her UVA teammates were every bit as excited when that long-awaited magical moment arrived.
“Just huge,” Cagle said. “She’s been just an amazing part of this team. She’s been out her first three years and just the resiliency she’s shown is awe-inspiring and a person that our whole team looks team to. So amazing for her to get the first goal.”
“Here she is doing her thing and looks as good as she ever has so it’s a credit to her,” Swanson said. “Long road for her, but I think a great story. Lot of tears on our bench when she scored so I’m happy for her.”
On the play in question, Virginia secured the ball near midfield as Towson tried to clear it from its own end. Sophomore Yuna McCormack, recently named to the U.S. roster for the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup, received a pass in the middle of the field and took three deft touches – left, left, right – that drew in multiple defenders. On the final one, she slipped a soft pass back to the left where Ryan came free unmarked.
Ryan gathered her steps and put a left-footed shot into the upper half of the goal for the 1-0 lead.
“First of all, it was a great pass from Yuna and Maya [Carter] was pressing really well so good group effort,” Ryan said. “… It was a great pass. It was just set up perfectly for me to get that in. … I had it on my left foot and I was like ‘Oh gosh, I’m shooting this with my left so we’ll see what happens.’ Honestly, I was trying to get it a little more wide but the keeper dove to the left so I ended up at the last second, tried chipping it a little more than I was trying to originally and it worked out.”
In the end, that breakthrough goal for Ryan proved to be the only one in the run of play for Virginia. That came despite the 24 total shots and 12 shots on goal, with credit due in part to Towson’s Riley Melendez as she came up with 8 saves through some solid play. Still, the Hoos felt like they left some good chances on the field and see that as an area for targeted improvement as they continue “working some things out” per Swanson.
There isn’t too much time to try to make some strides as a pair of Big 10 opponents are on deck within a week. Northwestern comes to Klockner on Sunday, while UVA heads to Penn State on Thursday. Both matches are scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
“Hopefully, we can get better at that, get more efficient in terms of our finishing in and around the box and with our decision-making in and around the box,” Swanson said. “But I think to get a win, a clean sheet, and to create some of the chances that we did, there’s a lot of positives. We just have to build on it.”
Would love to learn why Jill Flammia and Aniyah Collier didn’t play and weren’t mentioned in the broadcast. Injuries? We could use Flammia’s footwork around the goal and Collier’s athleticism on defense.