The University of Miami’s women’s soccer team played their final non-conference fixture at Cobb Stadium on Thursday against Virginia Commonwealth University. The Hurricanes bested the Rams 2-0, taking home their sixth victory of the season.
Consecutive losses to Wake Forest and Duke instilled Miami (6-3-1, 0-2 ACC) with a sense of frustration coming into this gameweek. However, rather than this frustration developing into disillusionment, it materialized as forward-thinking motivation, causing the Hurricanes to triumph energetically.
The Hurricanes were continually on the front foot against VCU (2-5-2), especially finding joy in the wide-spaces. Miami gained the lead almost immediately, as a through ball to Brie Severns and a subsequent cutback to Ciara Alarcon saw the ball neatly placed into the bottom left corner. Following the goal, Miami went from strength-to-strength throughout the first half, rarely facing any sniff of danger from VCU’s offense.
Miami’s second goal arrived in a very similar fashion to the first, as a long ball from UM’s back line found Ciara Alarcon out on the right-flank, allowing her to square the ball across the box for Éabha O’Mahony to strike it home at the back post.
The pattern between the goals demonstrates a growing efficacy of the players implementing head coach Ken Masuhr’s coaching.
“We scored two goals that came from the very foundations of our program,” Masuhr said, highlighting the squad’s growing on-pitch cohesion.
Such positivity surrounding the replication of in-practice possessional play has significant positive implications for this season. If Miami can continue to build on these ideas from practice, there is great scope for the team to surpass last season’s 15th-placed ACC finish.
Furthermore, Miami’s strong possessional display platformed the team accomplish another clean sheet, taking their tally to five this season. This shutout was aided by an 81st minute save by Lauren Rodriguez, who was consistently reliable in the few times she was tested this game.
Miami’s performance was excellent by all metrics, as they took this VCU team by the collar throughout the 90 minutes. However, the majority of the Hurricanes’ non-conference games have been marked by this dominance, which has not yet been replicated in ACC play. Therefore, while there are many positive signs to take from this midweek fixture, Miami still must strive to assert themselves in competitive play.
Miami face another challenging fixture against Louisville this Thursday, September 25th, at 7 p.m., as the Cardinals sit fourth in the ACC with a 2-1 conference record. Though this game marks another difficult date on the Hurricanes’ calendar, if Miami can find a way to take their non-conference momentum into this campaign, there is a real possibility that they take home their first points of the season.