Clemson Women’s Soccer Team Falls to 10th-Ranked Virginia Sunday

Oct. 5, 2008

CLEMSON, SC – The Tiger women’s soccer team fell to 10th-ranked Virginia by a score of 7-1 in ACC women’s soccer action on Sunday afternoon at Riggs Field. With the win, Virginia moves to 10-1-1 overall and 4-0 in ACC play, while the Tigers fall to 4-5-1 and 0-2-1 in league games.

Senior defender Molly Johnson scored the Tigers’ lone goal of the match at the 88:03 mark. Freshman defender K.K. Duffy served a free kick from 35 yards out on the right side of the field and hit a streaking Johnson who headed the ball past Virginia keeper Celeste Miles, who has allowed only six goals this season. The goal was the second of the season for Johnson, while Duffy recorded her second assist.

Virginia got on the board first at the 5:46 mark of the first half. Sinead Farrelly assumed control of the ball just over the center circle, dribbled down the middle of the Tiger defense and put the shot over the outstretched right arm of a diving Paula Pritzen.

The Cavaliers were able to take advantage of a defensive error by the Tigers five minutes later, as defender Molly Johnson tried to clear the ball out of the box and had her kick rebound off of teammate Katie Vogel. The ball went right to Virginia’s Maggie Kistner 10 yards from the net, with Kistner taking advantage of the mistake and putting the ball into the lower left corner.

Farrelly scored two more times to complete the first-half hat trick and give the Cavaliers a 4-0 lead heading into halftime. Virginia would add three more goals in the second half, taking a 7-0 lead before Johnson put the Tigers on the board with 1:57 remaining.

Virginia took 13 shots in the game, to the Tigers’ nine, while the Cavaliers had eight corner kicks to Clemson’s two. Sophomore Paula Pritzen recorded four saves in goal for the Tigers, while Celeste Miles tallied two for Virginia.

“Virginia is a very good team,” noted head coach Hershey Strosberg after the game. “They play very methodically and they have a lot of dangerous players. Good teams will punish you for your mistakes, and that happened to us today.

“We learned a very difficult lesson. It’s hard to go down in a game and have to chase they way we did. We are going to keep working on correcting our mistakes and one of these days things will begin clicking.”

The Tigers will return to action on Thursday, October 9 as they take on N.C. State. The contest between Clemson and the Wolfpack will begin at 7:00 p.m. at Riggs Field.

Virginia 7, Clemson 1

Game Summary Goals: Virginia – Farrelly (unassisted) 5:46 Virginia – Kistner (unassisted) 10:40 Virginia – Farrelly (unassisted) 23:36 Virginia – Farrelly (unassisted) 40:09 Virginia – Alwine (from Senty and Miskel) 55:47 Virginia – Lenczyk (from Kistner) 61:53 Virginia – Miller (from Stewart) 75:09 Clemson – Johnson (from Duffy) 88:03 Saves – Pritzen (CU) 4, Team (CU) 1, Miles (UVA) 2 Shots – Clemson 9, Virginia 13 Corner Kicks – Clemson 2, Virginia 8 Fouls – Clemson 9, Virginia 13