Lenczyk, Cavaliers douse Flames

By Whitey Reid

Published: August 29, 2008

One of the bigger questions for the Virginia women’s soccer team heading into this season was finding somebody to replace the scoring punch of Shannon Foley, the team’s top sniper from last year.

On Friday night at Klockner Stadium, sophomore Meghan Lenczyk threw her hat into the ring.

The sophomore from McLean had a hat trick off the bench as Virginia dominated Liberty, 5-0.

“I attribute a lot of it to my teammates just playing me good balls and setting me up,” Lenczyk said. “I guess I was just in the right place at the right time.”

Lenczyk’s hat trick was the first by a Virginia player since Kelly Hammond’s in 2004.

“I think Meghan’s one of our better players up front holding the ball,” said Virginia coach Steve Swanson. “Last year, it took her a little while to get into the system. This year, I think she’s got that now.”

Swanson, whose team outshot Liberty by a whopping 38-1 margin, was pleased with the game’s final outcome. However, he wasn’t satisfied with the Cavaliers’ play in the first half.

UVa (2-0) had an 18-1 edge in shots, but led just 1-0 at the break — thanks to a goal in the sixth minute by junior forward Caitlin Miskel.

Miskel easily dribbled into the box and took a shot that didn’t have much oomph but managed to handcuff Flames goalie Karen Blocker and trickle into the net.

However, that’s when the faucet froze. UVa had a plethora of scoring chances in the ensuing 39 minutes, but failed to capitalize.

Finally, in the 61st minute, freshman Lauren Alwine zoomed up the right sideline and made a beautiful cross to Lenczyk, who beat Blocker with a header.

Just 39 seconds later, following the kickoff, sophomore Colleen Flanagan flicked a pass ahead to a streaking Lenczyk, who dribbled into the Flames box and blasted a shot past Blocker.

Lenczyk completed the hat trick 13 minutes later when she slammed home a rebound while sliding on the ground in front of the Liberty net.

“The corner kick came in and Katie Carr got up and headed it,” Lenczyk explained. “I actually thought she scored and I turned around and the defender from the other team was on the post. I just slid and tapped it in.”

Freshman Molly McKeon rounded out the scoring with a goal in the 83rd minute.

“Overall I think it was good to see us come back and score goals in the second half,” said Swanson, whose team hosts VCU on Sunday at 6 p.m. “The thing we have to learn from this is that the longer we let a team hang around in a game, the more trouble it’s going to be for us. For as many shots and as much penetration as we had, the game was 1-0 midway through the second half.”