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Men's Soccer Welcomes NC State Thursday on Senior Night
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia men’s soccer team plays host to North Carolina State at 7 p.m. Thursday at Klöckner Stadium in the regular-season finale for both teams. Senior Night ceremonies will be conducted prior to the start of the match.
The game will be streamed live online at VirginiaSports.com as part of Cavaliers Live, UVa’s live audio and video streaming offering. Live statistics also will be available at VirginiaSports.com.
Tickets are $9 for reserved seats, $7 for adult general admission and $5 for youth/student/senior citizen general admission. Fans can order tickets online at VirginiaSports.com and by phone through the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office at 800-542-UVA1 (8821) or 434-924-UVA1 (8821). Tickets are available at the gate beginning one hour prior to the start of play; gates open one hour prior to the match. Free parking is available in the University Hall and John Paul Jones Arena lots.
UVa will honor five fourth-years and their families prior to the start of the match. Ari Dimas (Chesapeake, Va.), Sean Hiller (Howell, N.J.), Hunter Jumper (Plano, Texas), Felipe Libreros (Oldsmar, Fla.) and Brian Ownby (Glen Allen, Va.) will be honored.
The match has big implications heading into postseason play. Virginia (10-6-1, 3-3-1 ACC) sits in sixth place in the ACC standings but is just three points outside of second-place Maryland and Duke; UVa has a game in hand on the Blue Devils. NC State (6-9-2, 2-5-0) holds eighth place with six points in league play. The top four teams in the final ACC standings receive home-field advantage for the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament next Tuesday.
Virginia suffered a 2-1 defeat to then-No. 13 Boston College last Saturday at Klöckner Stadium. After falling behind 2-0 early in the second half, UVa went on the offensive and controlled play for the majority of the half. The Cavaliers out-shot BC 12-6 in the half and had the ball on the Eagles’ side of the field for most of that time. Brian Span (So., Somers, N.Y.) scored on a penalty kick in the 70th minute for Virginia’s tally.
Virginia benefited from the return of Dimas and Chris Somerville (Fr., West Chester, Pa.) to the lineup last week. Dimas missed a month (six matches) with an ankle injury, while Somerville sat out seven games because of mononucleosis. Somerville returned Tuesday and played the second half against American and Boston College. In his return vs AU, Somerville assisted on a Brian Ownby goal for his first college assist. Dimas started vs. BC and played 59 minutes at midfield.
Virginia currently ranks fourth in the league and 22nd nationally in scoring with 1.88 goals per game. UVa has allowed 1.24 goals per game, which also stands fourth in the conference.
NC State took then-No. 4 North Carolina to overtime last Friday before falling 2-1 in Chapel Hill. Nader Jaibat recorded the Wolfpack’s lone goal. NC State now has played seven overtime games this year, going 2-3-2 in those contests. Nazmi Albadawi leads the team and ranks sixth in the ACC with eight goals. The Wolfpack ranks eighth in the ACC with 1.18 goals per game.
Virginia maintains a 44-17-7 advantage in its series with NC State. The teams have been playing since 1949. The Wolfpack downed UVa, 2-0, on Nov. 6, 2010, in Raleigh in the teams’ last meeting. The 2010 Wolfpack win snapped an eight-game unbeaten streak by the Cavaliers in the series, dating to 2003.
NC State’s last win in Charlottesville came on Oct. 25, 1980, a span of 15 matches.
Virginia will begin ACC tournament play on Tuesday. The Cavaliers’ opponent and game site will be announced following the conclusion of all ACC games on Thursday evening.
In a change this year in the tournament format, all quarterfinal matches will be played at the sites of the No. 1-4 seeds; the No. 8 and 9 seeds will play Monday afternoon at the site of the No. 1 seed, with the winner playing at the No. 1 seed Tuesday. The quarterfinal winners will advance to the semifinals on Nov. 11 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.