The UVA Women’s Soccer team topped the national rankings at number one on October 26th after taking down Miami (FL) 6-1. After the top team, Florida State, suffered its first loss this season to Duke, the Cavaliers took down the Hurricanes to top the Seminoles in the rankings. The Cavaliers finish the regular season 15-1-1, only suffering a loss to Penn State and a tie to North Carolina earlier in the season. This eventually led up to the Cavaliers and Seminoles playing head-to-head in the regular season finale. 

After the Seminoles dropped to number three in the country, they played each other in their final regular season game on October 28th in Tallahassee. After a scrappy 45 minutes, the first half finished deadlocked at 0. During the 62nd minute, Virginia player Diana Ordonez scored to make it 1-0. She received a perfect pass from the left side into the goal area and put away her 14th goal of the season, extending her lead as the ACC’s leading scorer. 

After going down 1 goal, it didn’t take long for the Seminoles to equalize. After only five minutes from Ordonez’s goal, Yujie Zhao scored in the 67th minute to knot the game at 1-1. 

After finishing the 90 minute game deadlocked at 1-1, the Cavaliers and Seminoles went into two 10 minute overtime periods. After it was still tied at 1-1, the game finished as a draw after 110 minutes of play. 

This draw gave the Cavaliers their third ACC regular-season title in program history. They finish the season with seven players being named to All-ACC teams, with head coach Steve Swanson also winning ACC Coach of the year. They will play High Point University in the NCAA Tournament as a 1 seed on November 12, sharing the other three 1 seeds with Florida State, Duke, and Rutgers. UVA fans across the state are hoping that the Cavaliers win their first women’s championship in team history.