Nov. 15, 2009

Box Score

DAYTON, Ohio - No. 17 Virginia Tech advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament with a 3-1 win over No. 23 Dayton Sunday at Baujan Field in front of 870 fans.

Junior Marika Gray scored a goal in the 6th minute and the 66th to lead the Hokies. They were her ninth and 10th goals of the season; and she has a team-leading 22 points.

Her first goal came 5:30 into the match as a Dayton defender had a miscommunication with freshman goalkeeper Katherine Boone. Gray swooped in when the ball was misplayed and sent it to the back of an empty net.

Moments later it looked as if senior Mandi Bäck would tie it up for the Flyers. She had a shot from the top of the box hit just under the crossbar 15 minutes into the match.

The Hokies (16-7) led 1-0 at the half, though Dayton had a slight edge on shots, 8-7.

Freshman Kelly Conheeney put Virginia Tech, the No. 3 seed of the UCLA bracket, up 2-0 in the 60th minute. She followed on Robin Chidester's shot and charged through the ball to hammer it to the back of the net. Her ninth goal of the season proved to be the game winner.

Gray added an insurance goal in the 66th minute. Her first shot was saved by Boone, but deflected out into the box. Gray followed up and put it away. Boone finished the game with four saves, and Tech keeper Kristin Carden had five saves.

The Flyers scored their lone goal of the match in the 80th minute. Bäck slotted a pass behind the Hokie defense to Allison Giner on the far post. Giner's one-touch redirection dribbled across the line.

Dayton's Jerica DeWolfe almost had her shot go in with about seven minutes to play. Bäck fed her a pass, and then she chipped it over the keeper's head. It went just over the crossbar.

The Flyers suffered their first loss this season after going the entire season unbeaten, winning the Atlantic 10 Regular and Tournament Championships, and advancing over Marquette in their First Round NCAA game against Marquette.

UD, which had allowed just seven goals all season going into this match, had not allowed an opponent more than one goal in a match until the match against the Hokies. The Flyers finish the season 16-1-6.

Dayton Head Coach Mike Tucker
"Once again it was a heck of a game. They gave us almost everything that we thought they would. We didn't quite respond exactly the way we wanted. We did a lot of the things we thought we could take advantage of. We just did not finish well today. The better team won today. They out toughed us. They had one very special player up top that made a difference. Great job by Virginia Tech. They deserve to go on. I am very proud of our young ladies for the effort they gave. I feel badly that tomorrow we have nothing to do, but go to classes. We all want to be out there training and getting ready for a match, but it is not going to happen. It happens every year at some point in time, but it always a tough situation. You're training for the last game going 300 mph and then nothing. Not very happy about that, but that is life and you move on."

Question: What kind of things made this team special?
Coach Tucker: "Leadership from our three seniors as well as our junior captain Kelly Blumenschein that was evident from the very first training. They had a resolve that they were not going to go their careers without playing an NCAA tournament and they passed the work early on to the younger players that that was not an option to be doing anything, but playing this weekend. That was the biggest thing. The effort that our girls gave every day in training to try and get better was phenomenal. We had very few issues to deal with other than trying to get better on the soccer field."