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Charlottesville girls soccer rallies to edge Orange County

When two young, talented squads are battling it out, there are going to be some momentum swings and Charlottesville versus Orange County girls soccer had the swings Thursday night. 

 

The Hornets attacked early and then Charlottesville responded to start the second half, scoring two early goals to hold off Orange at home 2-1 for the win. 

 

Both Charlottesville goals came from senior striker Elizabeth Burns, who looped both shots high over the Orange defense and keeper to finish off a couple of solid build-ups, including what became the gamewinner that was driven by Lily Dressen-Higginbotham and Sophie Chen’s work in transition in the midfield. It was a complete shift from the first half where the Hornets had Charlottesville on their back foot, and the Black Knights went to work on fixing that during halftime. 

 

“At halftime coach Marcelle (Van Yahres) told us we had to figure it out and walked away,“ Burns said. “So Amalia the other captain and I kind of took over and led a conversation where we tried to figure out what we were and what we bring to the table.”

 

The young players got right in line with Burns and defender Amalia Ventre.

 

“We said going back into the game that we were going to bring intensity and that’s exactly what we did in the first 20 minutes and that’s how we won,” Burns said. 

 

Sophomore Kathryn Lenhert also played a big role for the Black Knights, making several late saves in net to prevent a renewed attack by Orange in the closing minutes from finding an equalizer. It was an impressive effort by the Hornets, who’ve strung together some solid outings this year with an infusion of young talent and a group of older players buying into the game plan under first-year head coach Tracy Munger. 

 

“I thought we played really well, we came out strong, especially coming off a difficult game against Western on Monday,” said Orange assistant Mary Sommar. “We played our game, we had a lot of good things happening.”

 

Orange stayed on the offensive much of the game but was particularly aggressive in the first half and broke through just before halftime when freshman Laney Fayard headed in a ball chipped into the air by senior Karli Dodge out of a scramble that ensued after a corner kick. 

 

The Hornets’ youth — there are five freshmen on the varsity squad — and depth are clearly starting to come around and meld together. 

 

“We’re thrilled about the future of Orange soccer, we’ve got a strong young team and our juniors and seniors are also strong, we feel really good about this season,” Sommar said. 

 

Charlottesville will try and build on that second half momentum Wednesday when they hit the road to face Western Albemarle while Orange squares off with Albemarle at home on Monday night. 

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