It happened Sept. 8, 2023, during a game at Duke, a dispiriting 2-0 loss five matches into the campaign. An ACL injury ended Triton Beauvois’s sophomore season that day. Almost two weeks later, he posted on Instagram a picture of himself in a hospital bed, beaming despite the bulky brace encasing his leg and the IV swooping into his skin.
The caption read “Challenge accepted,” with a green check mark emoji. That was one way to think about the process that ACL surgery promised, a process that finally culminated in a tremendous comeback this season.
Fast forward a while from that post, through the days, weeks and months, and up went another Instagram post. It could have been just an ordinary picture, just an ordinary caption. But under the post, bubbling up beneath it, lay something more.
“11 months later,” the caption said.
Those two numbers and 11 letters shouldered a hefty burden. They comprised barely a half-line of text, but were resonant of so much more, an unmistakable allusion to the nearly year-long recovery. Eleven months of working back from surgery, of exercising the knee thankless day after thankless day, of watching while other people got to play.
“It was tough,” Beauvois said, after an Aug. 29 win against St. Joseph’s. “But you make a decision. Either you dwell on the pain, or you just fight back and do what you need to do.”
He fought back and did what he had to do. That was clear when, 10 minutes into the St. Joseph’s game, on a lazy Wednesday afternoon, Beauvois received a pass near the sideline. The game was still deadlocked. Not for long.
Beauvois, confronted with a defender, feinted as if to dart inside. Then he turned the other way, summoning one of those moves you see elementary school kids practicing at the park. The defender looked trapped in porridge. He could only flail an arm.
“I know my abilities as a player,” Beauvois said later. “I like to run at people, create something from nothing. So I just took my opportunity.”
The second defender never had a chance. One touch and a jolt of acceleration boosted Beauvois straight past him, down to the endline, where he floated a pass to junior forward Reese Miller, converging on the back post. Miller thumped it home.
“Second defender came,” Beavouis said. “Beat him. And found my buddy at the back post. So felt good.”
The sight of Beauvois charging forward, hair flopping as he goes, has to be rather frightening to a stumbling defender. It sometimes seems inexorable, like in that one play. It also sometimes seems absent, like in the fact that Beauvois has just that one assist this season and no goals yet.
“He brings electric pace and ability to dribble,” Coach George Gelnovatch said after the St. Joseph’s game. “You’ve got his kind of speed and agility and can also dribble? That’s a pretty good winger. So that’s what he offers.”
Beauvois has started four out of the six games for which he has been available and played roughly half the possible minutes. He is a relative fixture roving the right flank, as Gelnovatch has shuffled attacking options in and out, searching for the combination that will stimulate a bumpy attack.
The consternation focuses mostly around the center forward position. Gelnovatch has primarily deployed graduate forward Hayes Wood and senior forward Kome Ubogu, with mixed results.
Wood seemed, for a fleeting moment a couple weeks ago, to have established himself as the top option but has faltered since. Ubogo felt invisible for a while but roared back with a strong performance and a goal Saturday against California. Neither has provided the answer.
That perhaps places some more onus on the wingers, but that is perfectly fine with Beauvois. He missed Virginia’s Sept. 13 game at Wake Forest with an eye injury but returned to play 17 minutes at California.
His latest Instagram post displays pictures of him playing this season. There is no caption beneath it, or the one before it. There is nothing to say. It is all there for everyone to see.
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