Virginia spent the first few minutes of its game against Penn State field hockey trying find the spark to set off its momentum.
And, once they found it, the Nittany Lions couldn’t catch up fast enough to match it.
Friday was the home opener at Happy Valley and official start of the NCAA Division I field hockey season. No. 16 Penn State ultimately fell to No. 3 Virginia at home 2-1.
“Virginia is a very good team,” Coach Lisa Bervinchak Love said. “They’re very skilled. Their forwards and their middies are very skilled.”
That was evident from the start, especially in the way that Virginia was quicker to the ball, more in control of it, and how they moved as a unit. The entire squad moved into advantageous positions on the field to support their teammates forward movement.
Just over four minutes into the game, a sequence of passes from an aerial to the ground would send the ball to Noa Boterman. She then sent it in the direction of Sloan Davidson, who then went one-on-one with freshman goalkeeper Aby Deverka. Davidson landed the first goal for Virginia.
Throughout most of the game, junior midfielder Daniela Mendez-Trendler was seen all over the field disrupting passes.
Deverka’s debut was a good one. She made some key saves on Mendez-Trendler, Taryn Tkachuk and Mia Abello that could have given the blue and white a big deficit to climb out of. The first year student from Texas had 11 saves on the day.
“I think she showed some great composure back there,” Love said.
Virginia’s style was filled with paced balls and defensive double-teams that prevented Penn State from entering the circle. The Nittany Lion back line had to work hard to be on top of the Cavalier’s powerful offense that had 13 shots on goal compared to Penn State’s one.
There were several near misses like the Cavalier’s Jans Croon’s in the third, but Deverka happened.
Virginia earned its fourth corner with six minutes remaining in the third but it would be unsuccessful as the Penn State defense created havoc. Shortly after the Cavalier’s corner, Penn State’s Aubrey Semler would run the ball down the field only to have a whistle end her run.
The Nittany Lion’s first corner came in the third. It was just what they needed to try to crack the cage. They went for four consecutive penalty corners with the last one being a hard rip from Phia Gladieux into the bottom left corner. The ball nailed the post and then angled into the cage. Julienne Van Bekkum assisted with the insert.
The game was even at 1-1.
Passing improved greatly for the Nittany Lions over the course of the second half but they still had some problems getting the ball past Virginia’s back line. Penn State was not going down easy as Sophia Mannino had a beautiful shot on goal but it was covered up by the Virginia goalkeeper Tyler Kennedy.
A disorganized backfield led to a Virginia corner with three minutes to go. This would end up changing the game as Croon took a shot off the corner pass which was saved by Deverka, but the rebound got loose and picked up by Caroline Nemec to make the game 2-1.
Cavalier fans cheered as the Penn State offense couldn’t get the ball to the cage with the remaining three minutes.
“I think they were doing a good job of shutting us down,” Gladieux said after the game. “They have a good one versus one defense, and I think they’re just really strong on the ball.”
Virginia starts their season 1-0 as they will take on Temple on September 6. As for the Nittany Lions, they fall 0-1 and have Syracuse on September 1.
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