As Virginia travels to Maryland this Halloween afternoon, they will bring with them a frightening 0-3 record in road games this season.
When the Cavaliers (8-7, 3-2 ACC) take the field at No. 2 Maryland (14-1, 4-1) tonight at 8:00, they will have an opportunity to erase the bitter taste of their road struggles this season with sweet victory.
It likely won't be as easy as taking candy from a baby, however, as Maryland currently stands in first place in the ACC.
In their last time out, the Cavaliers fell 1-0 to the UNC Greensboro Spartans for the first time in the series history. The Cavaliers went down early as Egill Atlason scored at the 5:36 mark in the first half for the Spartans for the game's only goal.
In road matches this season, Virginia has only produced one goal despite an increased emphasis on taking more shots.
"We're having trouble scoring goals and we're not trying to be just this finesse team," sophomore midfielder Joe Vide said. "We're starting to shoot from the outside. We know we have our backs against the wall now, so we need to come up with goals and wins."
Junior forward Mike Littlefield shared the same concerns as Vide.
"I think we realized that we need to take more chances," Littlefield said. "We're not scoring enough goals as a team. If we get a look, we need to take a chance from 20 yards out."
Despite such an up and down season for Virginia, the Cavaliers are still in position to secure the top seed in the ACC Tournament with a win.
A win at Maryland, however, has been no easy task for anyone this season. The Terps are a perfect 9-0 at home and have outscored their opponents by a margin of 23-5.
The Cavaliers' new philosophy on offense might be their best weapon against Maryland. The Terps have not faced nearly as many shots as they've taken, so putting pressure on the defense and junior goalie Noah Palmer may be Virginia's best chance to overcome the stingy Maryland defense.
Virginia coach George Gelnovatch has continued to try to make a big impact on how his squad approaches every game, and this is especially important with a team that is filled with new faces.
"What I'm trying to stress to my team is that there has to be a certain level of urgency about every game that we play," Gelnovatch said.
This urgency has never been more important than it is now. With a loss, the Cavaliers would fall to 8-8 and would be in danger of finishing the season below .500 for the first time since the 1980 season, when they finished 8-9-1 overall. But with a win, Virginia would guarantee a record above .500 and would be in prime position for a postseason run at the ACC and NCAA titles.
Along with trying to impress a sense of urgency on his young squad, Gelnovatch is trying to turn the Cavaliers into a possession oriented team.
"We're always a possession team," Gelnovatch said. "I have 13 new faces on my team, 10 freshman, and when you try to teach half your team how to possess the ball daily at practice, we've been going at it now two months, I can finally see it starting to sink in."
During tonight's game, Virginia will have a chance to bring everything together from an uncharacteristically trying season and win the ACC regular season title. For Gelnovatch and the young Cavaliers, this would put the team well above preseason expectations.
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