Less than a minute into Sunday’s NCAA Tournament Round of 16 game against Marquette, junior Cavalier defender Matt Brown mishandled a pass near midfield. Marquette sophomore forward C. Nortey pounced on the miscue and sprinted downfield on a breakaway.
Brown pursued the Golden Eagles’ leading scorer, catching him with a slide tackle five yards from the Virginia box. Brown, Virginia’s last defender back, received a red card on the play, leaving the Cavaliers in a tricky position for the rest of the game.
“I’ve never coached down a man for 89 minutes,” coach George Gelnovatch said.
Rather than panic, the eighth-seeded Virginia men’s soccer team opted to adjust. Gelnovatch quickly subbed in sophomore defender Zach Carroll to strengthen the back line, and the Cavaliers made a concerted effort to get the ball as far away from their box as possible. Even junior goalkeeper Calle Brown joined in the effort, booming kicks well beyond the midline.
“You’ve just got to turn the page, crumple the game-plan and get on with it,” Gelnovatch said.
Two hours after Brown’s ejection, Virginia (12-5-5, 4-3-4 ACC) walked off the turf at Klöckner Stadium with a 3-1 victory that gave them a spot in the NCAA Tournament’s quarterfinal round. The Cavaliers displayed the same no-excuses attitude that helped them overcome a 1-3 start to the season and rise to ninth nationally in the season-ending coaches poll.
“We always come back,” sophomore forward Darius Madison said.
Marquette (13-6-2, 6-2-1 Big East) had an opportunity to score in the 20th minute when chaos descended on the Virginia box off a Golden Eagles corner kick. Calle Brown, though, came up with two reaction saves in quick succession, earning a roar of approval from the Cavalier faithful.
Four minutes later, sophomore defender Scott Thomsen knocked a free kick into the right-hand upper-90 for a 1-0 Virginia lead.
“I knew if I got enough pace on it, the goalie wouldn’t have a chance,” Thomsen said.
Thomsen came off the bench in Virginia’s second-round win against St. John’s, but he was in the starting lineup against Marquette. His goal was his first since the Cavaliers’ season-opener against Louisville, and it could hardly have come in a bigger moment.
“That goal just made us feel like we could do it a man down,” Gelnovatch said.
The Cavaliers extended their lead in the 47th minute when junior midfielder Eric Bird crossed the ball as he neared the Marquette end line. Madison, filling the middle lane, volleyed the pass in stride, and his touch was good enough to beat Marquette redshirt junior goalkeeper Charlie Lyon, the Big East Co-Goalkeeper of the Year.
Marquette got on the scoreboard in the 53rd minute when sophomore defender Axel Sjoberg funneled the ball through the Cavalier back line to Nortey, who slid his shot under Brown to cut the deficit to one. With the goal, the Golden Eagles got back within striking distance of Virginia.
“It’s deflating,” Gelnovatch said. “The momentum changes. You’re tired.”
But one minute later, Virginia sophomore midfielder Marcus Salandy-Defour tumbled to the turf in the Marquette box off an aggressive tackle, and the Cavaliers were awarded a penalty kick. Fellow sophomore midfielder Todd Wharton scored on the chance to restore Virginia’s two-goal edge.
Virginia held on from there, with Calle Brown getting his hands on nearly every jump-ball in the box and the Cavalier defenders clearing the ball away when their goalkeeper could not get to it.
Following the game, the team radiated confidence — and with good reason: they had defeated the nation’s No. 11 team despite playing 10 on 11 for all but 57 seconds.
“With this group, we never count ourselves out,” Thomsen said.
Virginia will play the winner of UCLA, the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, and unseeded Connecticut. The Cavaliers did not sound daunted by either prospect.
“Whoever we play, if we play our game, we feel like we can beat them,” Madison said.
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