Perhaps one play, not long after a dreadful period in Friday night’s contest, summed it up best.
In the 35th minute, junior defender Parker Sloan unleashed a good-looking shot from the edge of the penalty area. It arrowed toward the goal and smashed square into the post.
The problem, though, was that this was the wrong goal. Sloan had attempted a clearance that had gone so wrong it nearly became an own goal. He stared at the post as if it was a pearly white ghost, then bent over, looking at the ground. Maybe that image best summarized No. 5 Pittsburgh’s 4-1 evisceration of Virginia Friday night at Ambrose Urbanic Field.
Or maybe not. Maybe it is that the Panthers (12-3-0, 6-1-0 ACC) scored three goals within three minutes against the Cavaliers (7-5-3, 3-3-2 ACC), their quickest cluster of goals in program history. The goals came so close together that Virginia’s official X account, providing live updates, combined its posts about the third and fourth goals because it could not post about the third goal in time for the fourth.
Maybe it is that Coach George Gelnovatch benched nearly his entire starting 11. He made nine halftime substitutions, swapping out even senior goalkeeper Joey Batrouni, who had played every single minute this season. Or maybe it is that Virginia has not conceded this many goals in a game in two years.
Maybe there is no one moment or punchy statistic to encapsulate what happened, no way to explain a simply awful outing that left a five-game winning streak in tatters.
To say Virginia looked unrecognizable is an understatement. The Cavalier defense, ordinarily so resolute, surrendered four goals in the first 34 minutes to four different players. They shared a common theme. Pittsburgh slipped in behind each time, carving a porous back line into great big chunks and stranding Batrouni.
The first goal came in the 21st minute, the second in the 31st, the third in the 33rd and the fourth in the 34th. The assistant referee initially called the second offside, but a lengthy video review reversed the call. The fourth goal also warranted a trip to the monitor.
The balance felt relatively even in the second half. But by then, things had long been settled. A weak but present bright spot flashed in the 84th minute when freshman forward Joaquin Brizuela pulled a goal back. That was all, though, Virginia's only shot on goal.
Pittsburgh, in fairness, is not ranked in the nation’s top five for no reason. It spent three weeks lounging atop the polls and clinched at least a share of the conference regular-season title with Friday’s win.
But this felt like a stunning reversal for Virginia for a host of reasons. It followed arguably the team’s best outing of the season, a 3-0 thrashing Saturday of Syracuse. The Cavaliers had looked resurgent for weeks, winning five in a row, climbing to fifth in the ACC and nearly entering the top 25.
This does not undo all of that, by any stretch. Virginia can feel comfortable in having earned an NCAA Tournament bid, and there is still the ACC Tournament. The Cavaliers will play one more game before the postseason, a home game Wednesday at 3 p.m. against Division III program Mary Washington.
It could not come at a better time. Virginia typically would be closing its season with an ACC game, but it drew a conference bye and elected to fill the spot with a game that could provide rest and, presumably, an easy win.
It will be a crucial reset, after a night where the Cavaliers lost themselves.
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