The Virginia men's soccer team is faced with the tough task of putting an end to the winning ways of non-conference foe Mount Saint Mary's tonight at 7 p.m. at Klöckner stadium.
Mount Saint Mary's (3-2) will enter tonight's match attempting to extend their two-game winning streak. In their previous match last Saturday, the Mountaineers defeated the Blue Hens of Delaware, 2-1, at home; their feat tonight, however, should be much more challenging as they face a Cavalier team coming off a huge win against then-No. 2 Wake Forest.
Virginia's two early goals Saturday night were enough to hang on to a 2-1 win over the Demon Deacons and put them at 1-0 in the ACC and 2-3 overall.
For only the second time in this early season, Virginia was able to put away the first goal of the match. For head coach George Gelnovatch, this statistic was the cornerstone of his pre-game speech to the team.
"Our effort was to make sure we were concentrating on every little play for the first 15 minutes," Gelnovatch said. "We've been chasing a lot of games lately. The only difference is that we scored first and second and made them chase the game."
Another reason behind Virginia's early domination against Wake Forest was due to the emerging play of freshman forward Adam Cristman, who was recently named ACC Player of the Week. At the 54:03 mark in the second half, Cristman netted the game-winning goal after receiving the assist from junior midfielder/forward Kirk Dinnall.
"I think he's on his way and this was a big game for him," Gelnovatch said of Cristman's play after Saturday night's win.
Despite Adam Hakes' goal for Wake Forest in the 70th minute, the play of Cavalier goalkeeper Ryan Best down the stretch proved too tough for the visitors. Once again, Gelnovatch was pleased, this time with Best's performance.
"I tell our goalkeepers at Virginia this -- you're going to have to make a lot of saves," Gelnovatch said. "We're going to have the ball most of the time and outshoot the other team."
Gelnovatch went on to explain that his goalies are "probably going to have to make one big play, and [Best] did everything else fundamentally sound and that's all you can ask for."
Of particular interest, this was the Cavaliers' second consecutive year of knocking off a previously undefeated Wake Forest team. For Virginia, hopefully this most recent victory will carry over into tonight's match and mark the end to their early season struggles in the win-loss column. After getting their record to within one game of .500, the Cavaliers finally think they may have found their scoring ways and a team unity that works for everyone.
"We've gotten the unity down over the past few weeks," Cristman said. "The chances that weren't happening before are starting to happen."
Hopefully for the Virginia men's soccer team and all of Wahoo Nation, these new trends will continue tonight and extend through the rest of the season.
If that's the case, the Mountaineers beware.
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