Fresh off of their first game of the season, the No. 12 Virginia men’s soccer team will face Xavier in its second-consecutive home match this Friday night at Klöckner Stadium. The Cavaliers (1-0, 0-0 ACC) enter Friday’s matchup after a 2-1 home win against then-No. 21 Coastal Carolina.
Despite giving up a one-goal lead early on, the Cavaliers rebounded with two consecutive goals. Senior midfielder Paddy Foss and sophomore forward Edward Opoku netted one goal apiece, and Opoku’s ended up being the game winner.
“We played really well and didn’t get broken down against Coastal,” junior goalkeeper Jeff Caldwell said. “I think for us it’s about just building on that and doing more of the little things right.”
The Cavaliers will look to use their win over the Chanticleers to propel themselves into strong early season form. When it comes to a team like Xavier, Va. will enter the matchup with a similar mentality, but a slightly different game plan.
“I think they’re a little different,” coach George Gelnovatch said. “They’re probably less physical, but equally dangerous, maybe in a little bit of a different way. So we’ll just have to prepare a little bit differently, that’s all,”
And prepare they have. Virginia finished the offseason with three straight wins over Longwood, Liberty and Georgetown. Over the three games, the Cavaliers scored nine goals while only allowing two. Virginia also recorded two shutouts.
After such a strong preseason performance, morale among the Virginia players is high.
“For me personally, this is the best I’ve felt, I think, at this stage of the year,” Caldwell said. “Preseason went really, really well, and we carried that form into the first week. I think we have every right to be very positive and optimistic going into the rest of the season.”
The Cavaliers will get their next test against a talented Xavier team which features the likes of senior forward Jalen Brown and junior defender Cory Brown. Last year’s Xavier team finished 12-6-1, eventually losing to Georgetown in the Big East conference semi-finals.
The Cavaliers will look to deal the Musketeers their second loss in three games. So far, Xavier has recorded a 3-1 win against Evansville and a 2-0 loss against the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Although Virginia does not expect to lose, Gelnovatch did not seem phased about the potential to start the season 1-1 rather than 2-0.
“I think there’s a difference — I don’t know if it’s a big difference,” Gelnovatch said. “We don’t want to lose and we don’t expect to lose, but a loss is not going to derail us. Let’s put it that way.”
After a heralded 2014 season in which the Cavaliers won their seventh national championship, the 2015 season was strong, but saw Virginia lose some of its form down the stretch, eventually bowing out to Maryland in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Despite having a young team — over half of the roster is made up by true freshmen or sophomores — the Cavaliers will rely heavily on their experience in the ACC and NCAA Tournaments.
Following their matchup against Xavier, Virginia will leave Charlottesville for a two-game road trip with games against James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. and ACC rival 21st-ranked Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C. Kickoff for Virginia’s match against Xavier is set for 7:30 p.m. at Klöckner Stadium.
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