top 25 calls virginia tech's after draw with no. 2 duke

Kolbjorn Bergstrom

Staff Writer

September 26, 2021

BLACKSBURG — In theme with the play of the game, freshman Avery Tharrington found herself being pressed from behind by a Duke forward. She quickly distributed the ball from the midfield line, looking to give forward Tori Powell a break away.

Her attempt went through, and Powell was in behind the defense, making sure to stay in front of the Duke defender on her heels. As she entered the 18-yard box, it became evident that she wouldn’t not have a chance, as the defender kept tracking with Duke goalkeeper Ruthie Jones in support.

While Powell was making her run, so was fellow forward Nicole Kozlova, so Powell passed the ball to Kozlova in the center of the box, and the Ukrainian international scored, giving the Hokies a 1-0 lead on the No. 2 team in the nation in the 21^st minute.

It marked Kozlova’s 7th goal on the season, not only tying her for leading scorer on the team with senior Emily Gray, but also it equaled her combined scoring total of her redshirt freshman and sophomore seasons.

“The connection we have on the team, the chemistry on and off the field,” Kozlova said. “I think this is the closest I’ve felt this team ever in my four years here, and we are all ready to fight for each other.”

After an impressive 2-2 draw against No. 4 North Carolina in Chapel Hill earlier in the week, Virginia Tech (7-2-2) took on another top team in the nation on Sunday evening.

Unlike prior home matches, the Hokies were the team on the back foot to start the match, as the Blue Devils were aggressive and high-pressed. The first 10 minutes belonged to Duke.

Then, the Hokies fought back into the match, looking more like the team the home crowd had come to know this season.

In the 12^th minute, the Hokies got their best chance up to that point, with a free kick position wide left and just outside the 18-yard box for Gray.

With the opportunity, Gray opted to take a shot, which narrowly went wide, as she skimmed the shot over the fence behind the goal in an attempt to hit the bottom left corner.

As the Hokies fought back into the match, it became a more back and forth affair, with Duke drawing a second save out of goalkeeper Alia Skinner, while Kozlova put a chance wide right on the other end. It would be 10 minutes after the free kick when the tie was broken by Kozlova.

In the 34th minute, senior Mackenzie Pluck delivered the ball to defender Nicole Chico, who found herself at an odd angle, wide left of the 6-yard box and a Hokie defender pressing her. The pressure didn’t stop her though, as she floated the ball perfectly over Skinner and found the bottom right corner of the net, tying the game at one.

As the goal from Virginia Tech reinvigorated Duke, so did Duke’s goal for Virginia Tech, as the half ended with both sides pressing each other equally again. The last big opportunity fell to Duke, as a corner was delivered onto the head of defender Katie Groff, and was saved by Skinner. This was Skinner’s 3rd of 4 saves in the first half, as the sophomore would have another excellent day in net, now totaling 37 saves on the season.

“I was just trying to get the team back into helps me get back into it,” Skinner said about her mentality after giving up the goal. She mentioned that the team prioritizes the “Big 5” moments, which she said were, “the first five minutes of the game, first five after half, first five getting scored on, first five minutes after scoring.”

The second half was like the first, but added to it was more offensive chances for Virginia Tech, with an early opportunity coming early on in the 51^st minute. Gray slid Powell in behind on the right side of the 18-yard box, Powell took a shot, which was saved by Jones.

After that opportunity, another opportunity came to Powell seven minutes later. She was in a similar position to the previous chance, but with more space and time.

Powell drove into the box, took a shot, and just put it wide of the bottom left corner, a prime opportunity missed for Virginia Tech, and its last opportunity it would see in the second half.

The half would slowly get more in favor of Duke, and so did the physicality of the play. The Hokies drew three yellow cards, with one of them turning things from bad to worse.

In the 80^th minute, Mackenzie Graham drew her second yellow card of the game, resulting in her being sent off with a red card. It was the first red card for the Hokies this season, and it could not have come at a worse point.

It was a struggle to assess what to do defensively.

“We were trying to figure out how to organize it to be honest,” Skinner said. “Whether a three back, whether a four back, how we were going to drop in our midfielders, trying to organize that all together.”

Freshman Allie Lewis agreed.

“It [mentality] doesn’t really change,” Lewis said. “Just trying to figure out what we can do, where we have Duke coming at us… to keep it organized and limit as much chaos as possible when playing 11 v 10.”

Duke ramped up the pressure in the last ten minutes of the half, trying to find the breakthrough goal, but the four shots they had resulted in Skinner’s 6^th save, one block, and two misses.

It wasn’t a good situation for the Hokies, not only were they heading into overtime with a player down, but they just came off of a double overtime draw with UNC a few days before.

“Once we got to overtime, we wanted to make sure we set in and try to get a point at least out of the game,” head coach Chugger Adair said.

Virginia Tech came out in a 4-4-1 to start the first overtime period, with Powell being the sole forward on the pitch.

Within the first minute of overtime, Skinner had to make an incredible diving save to her left to keep Virginia Tech in the game, with another save coming low right two minutes later.

Duke had Virginia Tech right where it wanted them, but the Hokies didn’t give up.

The only chance Virginia Tech had in overtime came two minutes after Skinner’s second save, as a well delivered long ball found Powell in behind the Duke defense.

The crowd roared as it seemed this was the perfect opportunity for the home side to win the game. As a defender was catching up to her, she took her shot, and it landed just about center mass of Jones.

The last opportunity of the first ovetime period came to Duke defender Caitlin Cosme, with a free kick just about 25 yards away from the net. Skinner set up her wall well and Cosme sent her shot wide, rounding out the excitement of the first overtime period.

Ten long minutes remained for each side, as the game had certainly taken its toll on both teams. The Hokies had two great passes sent in by Gray, one being a cross to Powell and the other being a free kick, with both opportunities being snuffed out by Jones.

As time winded down, Duke had the ball inside its attacking third. Driving with under thirty seconds remaining, it was able to draw one last free kick for Cosme. The stands shook with noise and movement as she went to take the last kick of the match, and it again went wide left, and the match ended in an exciting 1-1 draw.

“I do think it will build our confidence,” Adair said. “We are a young group, a lot of freshmen and sophomores… Duke is a good side and [North] Carolina is a good side and having to get a point out of each game is pretty good.”

The Hokies have earned their week's rest before its next matchup, as they will take on Pitt Panthers (8-3-0) next Saturday in Pennsylvania, gametime at 7 p.m. Virginia Tech will look to build on its solid ACC start (1-0-2) while Pittsburgh will be looking to continue its bounce back (1-2-0) in its first home game of the ACC season.

“We gotta make sure we get recovered over the next couple of days... to get ready for Pitt,” Adair said. “They're a very good team, very dangerous and have a number of personalities that can break you down, so we’ve gotta get organized and make sure we can put together a good game plan, to get on the road and get three points.”