The No. 18 Virginia men's soccer team has displayed both flashes of brilliance and long stretches of poor play during an uneven first two months of the season. With a win tonight in Winston-Salem, N.C. against unranked Wake Forest and a little help, however, the Cavaliers could find themselves in an unlikely spot: first place in the ACC.
Virginia capitalized on an unexpected outburst by freshman forward Ryan Zinkhan and a patented performance by junior forward and goals leader Will Bates to knock off previously undefeated No. 2 Maryland, 2-1, at home last Friday. Zinkhan opened the scoring in the 51st minute off the give by Bates and then returned the favor in the 84th minute by setting up Bates for the game-winning tally which gave Virginia (8-4-0, 3-1-0) its biggest win of the season.
"Talk about a special moment," Zinkhan said. "As a kid growing up, I dreamed about stuff like that. These guys are so easy to play with because they make me feel comfortable. I'm not just a first year to them; I'm just another player on the field."
Virginia's thrilling win pulled them even with the Terrapins for third place in the ACC, with each team having played one fewer game than division-leading North Carolina and Duke. As Duke travels to College Park tonight to play Maryland, the Cavaliers will have an opportunity to continue their climb up the conference standings. It may not be obvious what sparked the team's turnaround or when exactly it began, but a Cavalier victory tonight and a tie between Duke and Maryland would leave Virginia in sole possession of first place in the ACC - a conference which has produced three of the last four national champions.
Standing in the way is Wake Forest (5-5-2, 2-3), which enters Friday's contest with more than just conference positioning to motivate them. The squad will look to exact a measure of revenge against the Cavaliers, who eliminated the Demon Deacons during the first round of the 2010 ACC tournament, 1-0, on senior defender Hunter Jumper's second-half goal. The storied Wake Forest program - national champions as recently as 2007 - has struggled in 2011 and been outscored by opponents 14-11.
Despite the team's difficult season thus far, however, Virginia coach George Gelnovatch described Wake Forest as "another quality ACC opponent from top to bottom."
Much of the Demon Deacons' struggles have come at the offense end, as they rank seventh out of nine ACC teams in goals scored with a paltry 0.92 per game. The squad's 1.11 goals against average, meanwhile, is good for fourth in the conference. The Cavaliers hold a 34-7-6 all-time record against Wake Forest and have enjoyed success away from Kl
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