/
.
Cavaliers Play Host to Wake Forest Tuesday in ACC Quarterfinals
Story Links
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The fourth-seeded Virginia men’s soccer team opens the 2011 ACC Tournament at 7 p.m. Tuesday when it plays host to fifth-seeded Wake Forest in quarterfinal play at Klöckner Stadium. The teams are competing against each other in ACC tournament action for the fourth straight season.
Tickets for the quarterfinals are $10 for reserved seating, $8 for general admission and $5 for youth/senior general admission. Fans can order tickets online at VirginiaSports.com or by phone through the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office at 800-542-UVA1 (8821) or 434-924-UVA1 (8821). Tickets are also available at the gate beginning one hour prior to the start of play. Gates open at 6 p.m.
Parking will be available in the University Hall West Lot as well as the Cage Lot. Parking will not be available in the John Paul Jones Arena lots because of an event at the arena on Tuesday evening. (Parking map)
The ACC tournament takes on a new format this season. 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 Fetzer Field, home of top-seeded North Carolina, with the winner playing UNC Tuesday in Chapel Hill.
Two other quarterfinal matches are scheduled for Tuesday, as second-seeded Maryland welcomes seventh-seeded Boston College and sixth-seeded Clemson travels to third-seeded Duke. The quarterfinal winners will advance to the semifinals Friday at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C. The championship match will be contested Sunday in Cary.
Virginia (11-6-1, 4-3-1 ACC) finished the regular season in a third-place tie with Duke and Wake Forest (8-6-4, 4-3-1) in the ACC standings. UVa earned its best ACC finish since taking second in 2005. The Cavaliers topped NC State, 4-1, last Thursday to clinch home-field advantage for the ACC quarterfinals.
The Tuesday game will feature a rematch of a high-scoring regular-season matchup between the teams, as Wake Forest nabbed a 4-3 win over Virginia on Oct. 14 in Winston-Salem. UVa’s Will Bates (Jr., Chester, Va.) recorded a hat trick, but it wasn’t enough as the Demon Deacons scored the most goals of any UVa opponent in nearly four years.
UVa exploded for four goals in the first 26 minutes against Thursday against NC State to cruise to the victory. Brian Ownby (Sr., Glen Allen, Va.) scored a goal and added a pair of assists as the Cavaliers celebrated Senior Night with a big win. Ryan Zinkhan (Fr., Fredericksburg, Va.), Calvin Rezende (Fr., Davie, Fla.) and Brian Span (So., Somers, N.Y.) each added goals for Virginia.
Wake Forest is unbeaten in its last four matches, including road ties against a pair of top-10 foes in its last two games. The Demon Deacons played then-No. 7 Akron to a 2-2 draw on Oct. 29, then rallied to pull out a 1-1 tie at No. 4 Maryland last Thursday. Wake is 1-2-3 in road contests this season.
Sean Okoli leads the team with four goals and a pair of assists for 10 points. Andy Lubahn and Ben Newnam each have three goals and four assists for 10 points. Michael Lisch has received the bulk of the minutes in goal and owns a 1.21 goals against average and five shutouts.
Virginia holds a 34-8-6 all-time record against Wake Forest, with the last seven games each being determined by a goal or fewer. This marks the fourth straight year that Virginia and Wake Forest have matched up in the ACC tournament. UVa advanced in all three of the previous instances, winning in the 2008 semis (3-2) and 2010 quarters (1-0) and advancing via penalty kicks in the 2009 semis (0-0). UVa is unbeaten against Wake Forest in the ACC tournament, holding an 11-0-3 record.
UVa has an all-time record of 36-13-7 at the ACC tournament and has won 10 tournament titles (1988, 1991-95, 1997, 2003-04, 2009). This marks just the second time that UVa will play host to ACC tournament games; UVa hosted the entire tournament in 1996. UVa went 1-1 in the ‘96 tournament, downing Duke 3-2 in double overtime before falling to Maryland 2-0 in the championship game. 1996 was George Gelnovatch’s first year as UVa’s head coach.