Recap: No. 3 Stanford Women’s Soccer knocks off No. 1 Virginia at Cagan
On Sunday, No. 3 Stanford women’s soccer defeated No. 1 Virginia at Cagan Stadium by a final score of 2-1. Stanford senior midfielder Jasmine Aikey (26:28) and sophomore midfielder/forward Charlotte Kohler (36:23) scored for the Cardinal while midfielder Jill Flammia (71:17) scored the lone goal for the Cavaliers. Stanford freshman Caroline Birkel was the winning goalkeeper for the Cardinal with three saves and one goal allowed while Victoria Safradin was the losing goalkeeper for Virginia with three saves and two goals allowed. Stanford improves to 11-1-1 overall and 5-0-1 in the ACC while Virginia falls to 10-1-2 overall and 4-1-1 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Virginia at Stanford-Sunday, October 12th
“Yeah, incredible win to knock off the number one team in the country here at Cagan,” Stanford head coach Paul Ratcliffe said after the match. “Special, special afternoon for all of us and super proud of the team’s resiliency and grit.”
Virginia got off to a good start in the match with corner kicks at 3:35, 11:20, and 12:13. Unfortunately for them, they were unable to score off any of those chances. Virginia then got a yellow card at 21:52. While it can’t be confirmed that yellow card woke Stanford up, they did proceed to get corner kicks at 24:52, 25:33, and 26:01. Shortly after their third corner kick, Stanford would get on the board as Aikey had an amazing bicycle kick goal, finding the top center of the goal off her right foot. That made it a 1-0 lead for the Cardinal at the 26:28 mark.
“I’ve been kind of trying to do that for a couple of games and failing miserably and then I saw the ball overhead and I was like, eh, why not?” Aikey said of her goal. “And then when I was on the floor, I saw it hit the back of the net and I was like, wow, finally works. So, not much besides that…Usually I hit those like way over, so I was shocked, honestly.”
Virginia would respond with corner kicks at 26:57 and 28:35, unable to score off either opportunity. At 36:23, Kohler would find the bottom left of the goal to make it 2-0 off an assist from Lizzie Boamah. Neither team would score the rest of the half, but they did trade yellow cards, ending the half on a physical note. 2-0 Stanford led at halftime.
“I think it started with Mia’s really good ball on the set piece,” Kohler said of her goal. “We noticed there was space for a through ball early. And then one of the UVA girls made a huge goal line save, but we’ve really been working on following up and Lizzie was there to get the rebound and hit a great cross in and I just happened to be back post and tried to jump as high as I can and it worked out. So, it was a great ball, though.”
“Yeah, Charlotte was incredible, so happy for her to get the winning goal and an amazing winning goal, back post header,” Ratcliffe said of Kohler. “She’s been incredible all year. We played her out wide today and I thought she was great getting behind the defense. Good crosses in and then some good opportunities she created for us and then shots. So yeah, Charlotte, she ran her legs off today. It was incredible what she did for the team.”
Virginia would get corner kicks at 50:38 and 60:42, unable to score off either chance. Stanford then got a corner kick at 64:53 right after they had a yellow card. Stanford would not score off that chance. At this point, it looked like this match might be heading for a 2-0 Stanford win.
Virginia would change that at 71:17 as Flammia found the top left of the goal off her right foot to make it 2-1. Suddenly, it was now a one goal match with plenty of time for Virginia to tie.
Stanford would get a corner kick at 72:15 and then at 73:11 get a penalty kick as Andrea Kitahata had a chance to make it a 3-1 lead. Kitahata’s penalty kick was off target, keeping it a one goal match. The door was once again left ajar for Virginia to tie up the match.
Virginia would get one more corner kick at 79:33 and down the stretch was able to apply some pressure on Stanford. However, Stanford’s defense held firm as they didn’t give up a second goal. Laney Rouse would fire a shot to the top left of the net at 85:59 only for Caroline Birkel to get the save, her third of the match. From there, Stanford was able to get the win 2-1 as Virginia didn’t get another good look after that.
“Caroline was incredible,” Ratcliffe said of Birkel. “As a freshman, the composure she showed, gets stepping up in big plays, the leadership, organization skills, I thought she was phenomenal.”
“Oh my gosh, Birkel, I remember we were 0-0 and she just saved something from going upper V and I was like you know what? We have this game in the bag with her back there,” Aikey said of Birkel. “And I’m just so happy for her and proud of her. She’s put in a ton of work.”
For Stanford, this is a massive win. Virginia came in ranked No. 1 in the nation and was eager to prove that they were the best team in the nation. Instead, Stanford put forth a strong case for why they should be ranked No. 1 come Monday. Stanford did what they needed to do offensively and then played gritty defense. Considering that the NCAA tournament selection committee had Stanford outside their Top 16 coming into the match, it really is big that they were able to get this win and prove that they belong. All around, a great performance for the Cardinal.
“The first thing, the most important thing in these big games is imposing your will,” Ratcliffe said. “You know, the determination and the grit. Because it’s gonna be a tight game. And then, the next one is probably composure. Keeping the ball and thinking. I don’t think we did the best job today. I was a little disappointed, to be honest, but we did at times, but we need to get better. That we control the game.
“I thought we were, you know, and it was a strange game that we missed the penalty kick. I don’t think we ever settled in and got our rhythm. It was more a little bit transitional and a little sketchy at times. But it’s a credit to Virginia that they’re a really good team, too. So I think it created that atmosphere for us…I don’t want to be ranked number one right now. I wanna be ranked number one at the end and get a top seed. That’s our objective always. But it’s nice if we get ranked now, but the most important thing is we have a few more games left that we have to end strong.”
“Yeah, it feels great. UVA’s a great team and we’ve had this game circled for a long time,” Kohler said. “We haven’t played a ton of big opponents yet, so this was a huge game for us and it was a really tough battle…I think all season, we’ve just been working on staying compact defensively. When you’re on the weak side, we know we have to shift and we want to maintain as compact as we can. So, our whole team has been doing a great job shifting and defending as a team and I think that really paid off today.”
Up next for Stanford is a road match at Florida State on Thursday, October 16th. That will begin at 4:00 PM PT on ACCNX. That will be the first of two matches to wrap up their final East Coast trip, which will end on Sunday, October 19th at Miami at 9:00 AM PT on ACC Network.
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