The Virginia men's soccer team is set to host the American University Eagles tonight. The Cavaliers return to Klöckner Stadium after a disappointing trip to Chapel Hill, where they suffered a difficult 2-1 defeat to the No. 5 North Carolina Tar Heels. The loss dropped Virginia (8-1-0) from the top of the national rankings to sixth.
The Cavaliers are looking at the loss in Chapel Hill as somewhat of a wake-up call for the team's sleeping star players.
"What I [told the team] is that we need to get something out of this," coach George Gelvonatch said. "A couple of individual performances need to be a little better."
The Cavaliers finally saw a goal from last year's standout striker Adam Cristman. The senior captain had struggled to find the net this season and had put up just three assists through Friday. The team is also looking to much-acclaimed freshman phenom Jonathon Villanueva to step up to the challenges in the coming weeks. Thus far, the bulk of the scoring has fallen on junior Nico Colaluca and sophomore Yannick Reyering. Reyering led the Cavaliers in scoring last year and is off to an impressive start this season.
"I think he's just more comfortable with the culture, the team," Gelnovatch said. "He's one of our leaders. He's got a year under his belt in college soccer, so I think his play has been better."
Despite the lack of scoring on offense, the team has proven to be a second-half threat this season, coming from behind in three wins. Going down early to North Carolina, the team responded similarly.
"When we fell behind, our guys never quit," Gelvonatch said. "We scored one and put pressure on them late, which I was very pleased to see. This is a very tough conference. You can't expect to go undefeated in this league."
Given that the team has notched close wins against even weaker competition, the Cavaliers are not taking American lightly. This year the team has scored only 15 goals, winning eight of their games by only one goal. Though American enters this game with a record of 3-5-2, the Cavaliers believe that the game following their first loss is pivotal.
"We take every team the same way, whether they're ranked or not," Colaluca said. "We still need to come and play hard because anything can happen on any day
American has proven itself a capable team this season, losing to N.C. State by only one goal at the beginning of the month. Virginia is looking to avoid burning out after a hot start in the first half of the season, much like they did last season.
"Last year we started the season well also, just like this season, but we didn't end the way we wanted to end," Colaluca said. "So I think with a squad like this, we can start well and also end well."
The game against American can provide some crucial momentum heading into Friday's key match against the No. 2 Clemson Tigers. Tonight's game begins at 7 p.m.
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