Women’s Soccer Games of the Week (10/31 – 11/3)
#7 Virginia Tech (14-2-2, 9-2-1 ACC) at #1 Virginia (18-0, 12-0 ACC), Thursday, 7 pm ET
The Hokies have been steadily rising up the rankings this season. They can thank the fact they have won nine of their last 11, since losing their ACC opener to North Carolina. Virginia Tech has outscored its opponents 41-12 this season and has done it with equal distribution. Ashley Meier and Murielle Tiernan each have eight goals. Jazmin Reeves has seven goals and Katie Yensen has five. Eight other Hokies have between 1-3 goals.
Thursday's contest marks the first game in any sport between Virginia and Virginia Tech with both teams ranked in the top five nationally. A win over the Hokies would be the Cavaliers' fourth top-five win of the season and their sixth top-10 win.
Virginia looks to be the first team to post a perfect regular season record since Stanford in 2009. The Cavaliers lead the nation in goals with 57 this season and are the only team in the nation to have three double-digit goal scorers. Sophomore forwards Makenzy Doniak and Brittany Ratcliffe have 13 and 11 goals, respectively. Junior midfielder Morgan Brian has 10 goals and leads the ACC with 12 assists. Virginia's defense leads the ACC with a 0.50 goals against average and has posted shutouts in seven of the last eight games.
The Cavaliers are coming off a 1-0 overtime victory over No. 3 Florida State Sunday. Steinlage's golden goal 54 seconds into extra time gave Virginia its 18th straight victory and clinched the program's first ACC regular season title.
Virginia leads the all-time series 16-2-1, including a 10-1-0 mark in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers have won the last four meetings against the Hokies, including a 5-0 victory last year in Blacksburg.
#15 Stanford (12-3-1, 5-3 Pac 12 w/o Thursday game against Washington) at Washington State (11-3-3, 4-3-1 w/o Thursday's game with Cal), Sunday, 11 am PT
After a brief three-game skid at the beginning of October, the Cardinal has rebounded nicely, winning its last three games by a scoring margin of 7-2 (not including Washington game). Through 16 games, Taylor Uhl has a team-high 10 goals. Teammate Courtney Verloo, however, is the points leader with nine goals and six assists.
After starting the season off 7-0-3, the Cougars struggled a bit in October, going 4-3 with Thursday's game with Cal yet to go. Micaela Castain is the team's leading scorer with 11 goals. She also has a team-high eight assists. In its wins, the Washington State defense has been marvelous. It has not allowed a goal in any of its 11 wins and two of its ties have also been shutouts.
