UVA Women’s Soccer | UVA goalkeeper Victoria Safradin

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — For University of Virginia junior Victoria Safradin, summer break was no vacation. After the spring semester ended at UVA, she trained with two National Women’s Soccer League teams as well as the United States’ U20 national team before returning to Grounds late last month.

All that soccer meant Safradin wasn’t able to spend much time at home with her family in Eastlake, Ohio, near Cleveland. Still, for someone who’s been consumed by sport since she was young, it was a summer to remember.

Safradin has dreamed for years of playing professional soccer after college, and her stints in training with the North Carolina Courage and the Seattle Reign gave those NWSL teams an opportunity to evaluate her.

“If you perform well, they’re going to remember you,” Safradin said.

UVA is well-represented in the NWSL, and Safradin was able to reconnect this summer with three alumni of the program: Talia Staude, who plays for NC Courage; and Phoebe McClernon and Veronica Latsko, who play for the Reign.

“It’s nice being with old UVA players,” Safradin said. “It gives you more of a homey feeling.”

Her third college season officially starts next week, when No. 15 UVA visits West Virginia. But the Wahoos played an exhibition against ACC foe Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Wednesday night, and they’ll be at Klöckner Stadium on Saturday.

In an exhibition doubleheader that’s free to the public, the 17^th-ranked Cavalier men face VMI at 5 p.m. and the Virginia women take on DC Power, a pro team, at 8 p.m.

Safradin, who stands 5-foot-10, is in her second year as the Hoos’ starting goalkeeper. As a freshman in 2023, she backed up Cayla White, who was a graduate student. Safradin took over in goal last season and helped Virginia reach its customary postseason destination.

After missing the NCAA tournament in 2023—the only time that has happened in Steve Swanson’s long tenure as head coach—the Cavaliers came into last year determined to earn a spot in the field of 64, and “throughout the entire season that was our goal,” Safradin said. “We kept fighting to get to that spot. So it was just a…