Late last Sunday afternoon, Virginia sophomore forward Darius Madison shot high of the net and, dismayed, pulled his jersey over his head. His team trailed No. 4 Maryland, 1-0, in the last two minutes of the ACC Championship. Madison could not stand the thought of a Virginia loss in the conference title game, so he blocked out the field and stands surrounding him and his Cavalier teammates.
Virginia was playing its third game in five days, against a national powerhouse, in a venue—the Maryland SoccerPlex in Germantown, Md.—not so far from the Terrapins’ College Park home. The Cavaliers, however, expected to win the game, even after yielding an 88th minute own-goal.
“[We] played our hearts out, played really, really well and just came up a little bit short,” Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. “And it stings, and we’re all competitive, we’re all disappointed, but we need to turn the page and get ready for trying to win the next trophy.”
The quest to obtain that next trophy begins Sunday, when the No. 9 and eighth-seeded Cavaliers host the winner of Thursday’s NCAA Tournament first round matchup between Delaware and St. John’s in a second round match at Klöckner Stadium.
Virginia (10-5-5, 4-3-4 ACC) slogged through the first fortnight of the 2013 season, dropping three of four games and scoring just five goals in 360 minutes of play. Yet the Cavaliers did not capitulate to the challenge of playing the third toughest schedule in Division I soccer with a lineup almost devoid of seniors. After a Sept. 13 defeat to Wake Forest, Virginia did not lose in 11 matches from September 17 to October 29. The unbeaten streak vaulted the Cavaliers to No. 11 in the late-October NSCAA Coaches Poll.
Gelnovatch attributes Virginia’s turnaround—extended last week, when the Cavaliers toppled No. 12 Wake Forest and No. 3 Notre Dame to reach Sunday’s conference title game—to the bravado his precocious roster has developed over the course of the campaign.
“We have a lot of spirit,” Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. “It’s young spirit. You know, they’re kind of fearless, in a way…I never feel like with this group…that they’re fazed by being down, whether it’s one goal or two goals.”
The Cavaliers, successful as they have been, sound far from satisfied with their results to date. Madison’s eyes-covering gesture against Maryland expressed as much.
“Those guys wanted to win that game bad, I mean really bad—I mean, I could tell,” Gelnovatch said.
“And I think they have a little bit of a bad taste in their mouth, a little unfinished business, so I hope that plays a part in us getting ready for Sunday.”
Virginia seems to play its best when the game is on the line or in danger of slipping away. The Cavaliers played beyond the 90th minute nine times this year, finishing 4-0-5 in those extra-time affairs. Virginia beat Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament’s first round when sophomore midfielder Todd Wharton punched in a penalty kick three minutes into overtime. In Friday’s semifinal, Virginia overcame a 3-1 deficit with under 10 minutes to play to force extra time against then-No. 1 Notre Dame. The Cavaliers bested the Fighting Irish on penalty kicks, 4-3.
“The Notre Dame coach said to me after the game, ‘That’s one of the best fight-backs we’ve seen in a long time,’” Gelnovatch said. “We did the same thing at N.C. State [in a 3-3 tie on September 20]. We almost pulled it off at Wake Forest during the regular season.”
Virginia’s ability to both rally and produce in the game’s latest stages stems in part from its diverse sources of offensive firepower. Freshman forward Nicko Corriveau became the 13th Cavalier to score this season last Friday, depositing his first career goal into the top-half of the Notre Dame net to force a 3-3 tie in the 86th minute. Madison, junior midfielder Eric Bird and freshman midfielder Jordan Allen received All-ACC recognition for their play this year, but they hardly comprise Virginia’s entire attack. Five Cavaliers have racked up 10 or more points in 2013, and Allen is not one of them.
“I think with this team everybody’s a leader,” senior defender Kevin McBride said. “[Eric] Bird is a third year. Todd [Wharton] is a second year. Even the first years I look up to, and I know they look up to me as well. It’s kind of a togetherness, a team effort.”
On Sunday, the men’s game at 1 p.m. will open a double-bill of Virginia NCAA Tournament soccer, with women’s third-round action set for 5 p.m. in what could be a banner day at Klӧckner Stadium should the No. 1 Virginia women’s soccer team oust Georgetown Friday.
“It just happens to work out that way with the NCAA Tournament that we’re going to have a double-header,” Gelnovatch said. “Hopefully the weather cooperates and we get good crowds for both games.”
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