After a disappointing loss to Clemson this weekend, the Virginia men's soccer team is eager to tackle Marshall tonight at 7 p.m. at Klöckner Stadium.
The Cavs held the Tigers to just four shots the entire game. Two quick Tiger goals late in the game were enough to outlast the Wahoos, though. With a final score of 2-1, Virginia's record dropped to 7-5-1. Because of this unsatisfactory ending, the team is worked up to play Marshall tonight.
"I feel really bad for Marshall, because they are going to get all the frustration that we have right now," first-year midfielder Kyle Martino said. "We're just going to let it all go during this game."
The Thundering Herd is coming off of a 5-0 win over Howard Sunday. The team is led offensively by Byron Carmichael and Ian Laggat, both of whom scored in the Howard game.
Goalkeeper Taly Goode leads Marshall's defense, having come up with four saves for the shutout against Howard. But overall, the Herd had come up with only three goals in its previous four games and has a record of 4-8-1.
The Cavaliers' enthusiasm will be hard to contain considering the importance of this match-up, but they will have to control it and use it to get an early lead.
"I hope we're up by a couple of goals at half time," Cav Coach George Gelnovatch said. "I say that because we're going to be pretty excited to play."
The focus of both the coach and the players is to come out hard and win. The team needs a boost of confidence for the upcoming game against Conference-foe Duke Sunday.
"We've got to win, there are not more losses that we can afford," first-year forward Ryan Gibbs said. "We need to concentrate because we can't give up any goal on restarts. And we need to stay focused on Duke."
But before the Cavs can focus on Duke, they need to get through the game against Marshall. Despite the Herd's record thus far this season, the Cavs already have learned that no opponent can be taken lightly.
"We can't take this lightly at all," Martino said. "All we're thinking is we've got to win right now."
"We're going to come out and play this game as hard as we can," Gelnovatch said. "I want the game to be over at halftime."
To do this, the Cavs need to play their hardest and focus on victory instead of their recent losses. If they capture a win tonight, it will help them in their future games.
"We have a chance to erase all this," Martino said. "If we beat two of these [upcoming] teams, it erases every loss that we've had so far."
Virginia will face Duke, now ranked second in the nation, Sunday in Durham.
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