When glancing at Virginia's roster, the youth of the team is quite striking. The roster features nine freshmen and only two seniors: Joe Vide and Gifford Okatah-Boi. In Friday's 1-0 victory over Clemson, Virginia's starting lineup was comprised of one senior, four juniors, five sophomores and a freshman.
With a perfect 4-0 record in conference play this year, including two tough road victories at Boston College and Clemson, it looks as if Virginia has a legitimate shot to make a deep run in this season's NCAA Tournament. Yet the age structure of Virginia's roster indicates that the Cavaliers also are on a sustainable path for long-term success, most notably in the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
Yannick Reyering has emerged as the star of the entering 2005 freshman class. Reyering leads the team with eight goals and has formed a powerful scoring tandem with junior Adam Cristman at the forward position. Reyering likely will continue to play an integral role for Virginia throughout the next four years.
Yet, as one looks to the future, there likely will be other current freshmen who will emerge as solid contributors for the Cavaliers. So far this season, freshmen Jimmy Taranto, Nino DiMaggio, Milovan Milosevic and Robby Rogers have all notched limited playing time for Virginia. Freshman defender Bakary Soumare has been sidelined since the start of the season with a foot injury but is expected to become a mainstay on Virginia's defensive backline when his foot completely heals.
Taranto has appeared in five games for the Cavaliers and scored his first collegiate goal in Virginia's 4-0 victory over Mount Saint Mary's. Taranto sees his first year at Virginia as an opportunity to develop.
"As a player, coming into play with players like Nico [Colaluca], Cristman and Will [Hall] at this level, it's the best thing you can ask for," he said. "It's only going to make you better."
Dimaggio also scored his first collegiate goal in the victory over Mount Saint Mary's. He echoed Taranto's sentiments about his role as a freshman.
"I'm just happy to be here playing with guys like [Colaluca], Cristman and [Jeremy] Barlow," DiMaggio said.
Taranto, DiMaggio and fellow freshman Brandon Lawrence all played for the same club soccer team in New Jersey. This made the hassles of the recruiting process easier for Virginia coach George Gelnovatch.
"Coach Gelnovatch came to one of our games and was able to see all of us play," Taranto said. "But our decisions to come here were separate."
New Jersey was fertile recruiting ground for Virginia this past year, as four of the nine current freshmen are from the Garden State. Gelnovatch is a New Jersey native himself, which explains his familiarity with high school soccer in the state.
If all goes well, Virginia's freshmen likely will have an opportunity to get some playing time in tonight's game against Saint Francis (5-3-2). But the Cavaliers cannot take Saint Francis lightly, especially after last Wednesday's 2-2 tie with Monmouth, another Northeastern conference team. An easy victory over Saint Francis would allow No. 4 Virginia to rest the legs of some its starters in preparation for Sunday's home showdown against No. 10 Duke.
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