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Virginia Faces NC State Sunday at 1 p.m. For ACC Title
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CHARLOTTESVILLE – The fifth-seeded and sixth-ranked Virginia men’s soccer team meets seventh-seeded and 20th-ranked NC State for the ACC Championship on Sunday. Kick-off from WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C., is 1 p.m., and the game will be broadcast live on the ACC’s Regional Sports Network (Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, Fox Sports South, the New England Sports Network and Sun Sports). Live statistics will be available at VirginiaSports.com.
Virginia (13-3-3, 4-3-1) defeated fourth-seeded Maryland in its quarterfinal match, 1-0, Wednesday afternoon at Koka Booth Stadium. Tony Tchani (Norfolk, Va.) had the game-winning goal in the 88th minute to lift UVa to its third-straight victory and first over the Terrapins since 2006. In its semifinal match, Virginia and Wake Forest played to a scoreless draw through two overtimes and UVa advanced on penalty kicks, 5-4.
Will Bates (Chester, Va.) paces Virginia’s offense with seven goals and one assist, followed by Tchani with six goals.
Defensively, the Cavaliers are ranked third in the nation with a goals-against average of 0.39. UVa has shut out seven-consecutive opponents and allowed just seven goals in 19 games. Goalkeeper Diego Restrepo (West Palm Beach, Fla.) is also ranked third in the nation with a goals-against average of 0.39 and leads the ACC with 11 shutouts this season.
Virginia and NC State met on Nov. 7 in the regular-season and Virginia came away with a 1-0 win in Charlottesville. Ross LaBauex (Chicago, Ill.) had the game-winning goal on an assist from Neil Barlow.
Virginia leads the all-time series with NC State, 43-16-7, and has won three-straight vs. the Wolfpack.
Virginia and NC State have met five times in the conference tournament, with UVa holding a 3-1-1 record in those contests.
Virginia has an all-time record of 35-12-6 at the ACC Tournament and has won nine tournament titles (1988, 1991-95, 1997, 2003-04).
In all-time championship game appearances, Virginia has a record of 8-7-1.
NC State earned the No. 7 seed with a conference mark of 2-5-1. In their semifinal match, the Wolfpack defeated third-seeded Boston College, 1-0.
NC State is led by Ronnie Bouemboue eight eight goals and 10 assists, followed by Alan Sanchez with seven goals and nine assists. Goalkeeper Christopher Widman has a 0.82 goals-against average and has posted nine shutouts.