The No. 22 Virginia men's soccer team will take on Wake Forest tomorrow night in Winston Salem, N.C. in the second round of NCAA tournament play. The game will mark the teams' third meeting this season. The Cavaliers won both previous meetings, once in a regular season home game and once in the ACC Tournament, where a Demon Deacon own-goal handed the Cavaliers the win.
A win will advance Virginia to the next round of tournament play and will likely send the Cavaliers to San Diego for a third round matchup.
Virginia reached this stage thanks to their 2-0 first-round home shutout of Seton Hall Nov. 21. Facing a solid Seton Hall team that came into the game sporting a 9-5-4 record, the Cavaliers were able to stymie the Pirates offense and display a much-needed scoring punch that was often lacking during the regular season.
"The team's putting up goals, so that's a good thing," Virginia freshman goalkeeper Ryan Burke said.
Against Seton Hall, the Cavaliers got on the board first, but it was nearly 34 minutes into the game when freshman forward Adam Cristman dashed past a defender and beat Pirates goalkeeper Boris Pardo. That goal was Cristman's sixth goal and fourth game-winner of the season and the Cavaliers hope Cristman can play a key role in the upcoming Wake Forest game.
"It's been a tough stretch for him, he's been an absolute handful," coach George Gelnovatch said. "Finishing that play for him, getting that goal in the playoffs, was a great thing, because now he's got confidence going into the next one."
The Cavaliers' second goal against the Pirates came courtesy of another freshman, forward Ian Holder. With less than 17 minutes left, Holder headed in Hunter Freeman's free kick, sealing the victory. Holder's goal added to the offensive successes of the normally defensive-minded Cavaliers.
"I think we're just worried about playing defense and playing our game," Holder said. "We're not a big powerhouse in scoring, but I was just able to get behind him and Hunter just played a great ball and I just happened to be there."
The Demon Deacons will be entering tomorrow's game on fresh legs, having received the third seed in the tournament and therefore picking up a first-round bye. They boast an ACC Player of the Year in senior forward/midfielder Jeremiah White, an All-American goalkeeper in William Hesmer and an intense motivation to avenge their two earlier losses to the Cavaliers.
"Wake's a good team, it's definitely going to be a battle, there were some pretty heated confrontations in the last one," Burke said. "We're just going to treat it like another game."
The Demon Deacons will have the edge in experience, as the Cavaliers have 10 true freshmen on their roster. However, this late in the season, the Cavaliers are confident that their earlier experiences have toughened them up.
"We're coming into the end of the season and we're not young freshmen anymore, we have some experience and we're playing like it" Cristman said. "We're not playing young anymore."
Having accumulated glitzy regular-season records only to bow out early in the tournament in recent seasons, the Cavaliers hope to reverse that trend and follow up a tough regular season full of learning experiences with a deep NCAA tournament run.
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