Sunday, September 15
Charlottesville, VA
12:00 p.m.
Wake Forest University
3
at
0
Virginia
Wake Forest Dominates in Historic Road Victory Over No. 2 Virginia
9/15/2024 3:52:00 PM | Women's Soccer
The Demon Deacons defeated the Cavaliers in Charlottesville for the first time since 2012.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Powered by three first-half goals, the Wake Forest women's soccer team earned a dominant, 3-0 victory on the road against No. 2 Virginia Sunday afternoon at Klöckner Stadium.
The Demon Deacons (6-2-1, 1-1-0 ACC) opened the scoring in the 17th minute, as senior forward Emily Murphy received the ball at midfield and made an excellent, darting run into the box before slipping it to junior forward Caiya Hanks for the finish. It marked Murphy's 15th-career assist and third this campaign.
After a few more half-chances, Wake Forest doubled its lead in the 35th minute as senior defender Zara Chavoshi played a dangerous ball into the box before it fell to redshirt freshman Sierra Sythe in front of goal, who put it away for her first-career ACC goal.
Sythe has been phenomenal in her first collegiate season with three goals and two assists across the first nine games. Chavoshi, who went the full 90 for the seventh time this season, recorded her third-career assist while also being stellar in one-on-one defending against the Virginia attack.
The third goal of the afternoon came just three minutes later, as senior midfielder Emily Colton played a perfectly-weighted through ball and set Hanks free on goal. The junior made no mistake and finished with ease.
It marked the first-career brace for Hanks as she brought her season points tally to nine with three goals and three assists. Over the last two seasons, Hanks leads all Wake Forest players with 25 total points on nine goals and seven assists.
Colton, who has now recorded at least one goal contribution in three of her last four outings, logged her 11th career assist and third for Wake Forest. The transfer once again bossed the midfield and created multiple chances in 77 minutes of action.
In goal, redshirt freshman Valentina Amaral logged three saves en route to her second-career clean sheet (solo). The standout has only conceded one goal in over 400 minutes for her career with a .900 save percentage.
This marks the highest-ranked victory for Wake Forest since the 2-1 win at No. 2 Duke on Oct. 31, 2021. Of note, it was the largest win for the Deacs over a top-five opponent since the 3-0 victory against No. 5 Florida State in 2009.
The Demon Deacons handed the Cavaliers (8-1-0, 1-1-0 ACC) their first loss of the 2024 campaign as Wake Forest has now won back-to-back games over Virginia for the first time since 2011-2012.
Coming into Sunday, Virginia had only conceded twice all season. Three goals is the most scored against the Cavaliers in Charlottesville since Sept. 9, 2021.
With the 2-0 victory at Spry Stadium last season, this also marked the first-time in program history the Deacs have recorded consecutive clean sheets against the Cavaliers.
As a team, Wake Forest out-shot the hosts, 11-to-7 (4-to-3 on-goal). The Demon Deacons entered the contest third in the conference and eighth in the nation in shots per-game and have fired the majority of the shots in all nine matches so far this season.
How It Happened
"I'm proud of our team's response to the loss Thursday. We put in two really good performances against North Carolina and Virginia to open the ACC sustaining a high level of play with and without the ball. Caiya was clinical in the box today and I thought Sierra was pretty special and covered tons of ground. Our pressing was exceptional and some of the passing sequences were special. Proud of our team for rising to the challenge today! Looking forward to Stanford at Spry on Thursday! Go Deacs!"
Up Next
The Demon Deacons will now return home for yet another tough ACC clash against current No. 1-ranked Stanford on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. The match will be shown live on ACC Network Extra.
Follow The Deacs
Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | #GoDeacs
The Demon Deacons (6-2-1, 1-1-0 ACC) opened the scoring in the 17th minute, as senior forward Emily Murphy received the ball at midfield and made an excellent, darting run into the box before slipping it to junior forward Caiya Hanks for the finish. It marked Murphy's 15th-career assist and third this campaign.
After a few more half-chances, Wake Forest doubled its lead in the 35th minute as senior defender Zara Chavoshi played a dangerous ball into the box before it fell to redshirt freshman Sierra Sythe in front of goal, who put it away for her first-career ACC goal.
Sythe has been phenomenal in her first collegiate season with three goals and two assists across the first nine games. Chavoshi, who went the full 90 for the seventh time this season, recorded her third-career assist while also being stellar in one-on-one defending against the Virginia attack.
The third goal of the afternoon came just three minutes later, as senior midfielder Emily Colton played a perfectly-weighted through ball and set Hanks free on goal. The junior made no mistake and finished with ease.
It marked the first-career brace for Hanks as she brought her season points tally to nine with three goals and three assists. Over the last two seasons, Hanks leads all Wake Forest players with 25 total points on nine goals and seven assists.
Colton, who has now recorded at least one goal contribution in three of her last four outings, logged her 11th career assist and third for Wake Forest. The transfer once again bossed the midfield and created multiple chances in 77 minutes of action.
In goal, redshirt freshman Valentina Amaral logged three saves en route to her second-career clean sheet (solo). The standout has only conceded one goal in over 400 minutes for her career with a .900 save percentage.
This marks the highest-ranked victory for Wake Forest since the 2-1 win at No. 2 Duke on Oct. 31, 2021. Of note, it was the largest win for the Deacs over a top-five opponent since the 3-0 victory against No. 5 Florida State in 2009.
The Demon Deacons handed the Cavaliers (8-1-0, 1-1-0 ACC) their first loss of the 2024 campaign as Wake Forest has now won back-to-back games over Virginia for the first time since 2011-2012.
Coming into Sunday, Virginia had only conceded twice all season. Three goals is the most scored against the Cavaliers in Charlottesville since Sept. 9, 2021.
With the 2-0 victory at Spry Stadium last season, this also marked the first-time in program history the Deacs have recorded consecutive clean sheets against the Cavaliers.
As a team, Wake Forest out-shot the hosts, 11-to-7 (4-to-3 on-goal). The Demon Deacons entered the contest third in the conference and eighth in the nation in shots per-game and have fired the majority of the shots in all nine matches so far this season.
How It Happened
- Emily Colton registered the first shot of the afternoon five minutes in, as her attempt from distance was deflected behind for a Wake Forest corner.
- In the 17th minute, Caiya Hanks fired the Demon Deacons in front after an excellent run and ball from Emily Murphy put it on a platter for the junior forward.
- Kristin Johnson nearly doubled the lead a few minutes later as she made her way into the box and rocketed a shot just over the bar.
- The second goal came in the 35th minute when Zara Chavoshi put a free kick into a dangerous area, which fell to the feet of Sierra Sythe who put it into the back of the net for her third-career goal.
- Less than three-minutes later, Wake Forest took a commanding, 3-0 lead over the hosts as a perfectly-weighted through ball from Emily Colton set Caiya Hanks free, who then finished it with ease for her first-career brace.
- The Demon Deacons closed out the half with a few more half-chances as they went into the locker room in complete control of the contest.
- Murphy continued to be excellent with the ball at her feet, as she drove into the box and got a powerful shot off in the 56th minute.
- Wake Forest did a great job of seeing out the rest of the game in the second half, limiting Virginia's chances despite the Cavaliers pushing hard to get a goal back.
- Valentina Amaral made a couple of saves in the 83rd and 86th minutes to secure her second-career complete game clean sheet.
- This marks the highest-ranked victory for Wake Forest since the 2-1 win at No. 2 Duke on Oct. 31, 2021.
- Of note, it was the largest win for the Deacs over a top-five opponent since the 3-0 victory over No. 5 Florida State in 2009.
- With the 2-0 victory at Spry Stadium last season, this also marked the first-time in program history the Deacs have recorded consecutive clean sheets against the Cavaliers.
- Wake Forest improved to 9-21-4, and 4-10-1 on the road, all-time against the Cavaliers as it picked up its first victory in Charlottesville since 2012.
- In her 40th-collegiate start, Emily Murphy registered her 15th-career assist and fifth with the Demon Deacons.
- With her strikes in the 17th and 37th minutes, Caiya Hanks recorded her first-career brace as she brought her season point total to nine.
- Over the last two seasons, Hanks leads all Wake Forest players with 25 total points (nine goals, seven assists).
- Sythe has continued to be excellent in her first collegiate season, as her first-half goal brought her season total to three, tied for the most on the team in 2024.
- With her assist on the third Demon Deacon goal, Emily Colton has now recorded at least one goal contribution in three of the last four games, with two goals and three assists during that span.
- In goal, Valentina Amaral recorded her second-career clean sheet and first of the season.
- She has only conceded one goal in over 400 minutes for her career with a .900 save percentage.
- Wake Forest has five players with five or more points so far in 2024.
- Caiya Hanks - 9 points (3 goals, 3 assists)
- Sierra Sythe - 8 points (3 goals, 2 assists)
- Emily Colton - 7 points (2 goals, 3 assists)
- Anna Swanson - 6 points (3 goals)
- Hannah Johnson - 5 points (2 goals, 1 assist)
"I'm proud of our team's response to the loss Thursday. We put in two really good performances against North Carolina and Virginia to open the ACC sustaining a high level of play with and without the ball. Caiya was clinical in the box today and I thought Sierra was pretty special and covered tons of ground. Our pressing was exceptional and some of the passing sequences were special. Proud of our team for rising to the challenge today! Looking forward to Stanford at Spry on Thursday! Go Deacs!"
Up Next
The Demon Deacons will now return home for yet another tough ACC clash against current No. 1-ranked Stanford on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. The match will be shown live on ACC Network Extra.
Follow The Deacs
Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | #GoDeacs
Players Mentioned
Goalkeeper
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Defender
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Midfielder
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Midfielder
/ Women's Soccer
Forward
/ Women's Soccer
Defender
/ Women's Soccer
Forward
/ Women's Soccer
Midfielder
/ Women's Soccer
Forward
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