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Cavaliers Battle Top-Seeded UNC at 5:30 p.m. Friday in ACC Semifinals
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The fourth-seeded Virginia men’s soccer team will take on top-seeded North Carolina in the semifinals of the ACC Championship at 5:30 p.m. Friday at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C. The game will be webcast live via ESPN3.
Third-seeded Duke will face seventh-seeded Boston College in the second semifinal. The championship game will be played at noon Sunday.
Virginia (12-6-1) advanced to the semifinals in dramatic fashion Tuesday with a 4-3 double-overtime victory over fifth-seeded Wake Forest. Brian Span (So., Somers, N.Y.) scored the golden goal with just 20 seconds remaining in the second overtime stanza to propel the Cavaliers to the win.
Span scored a pair of goals Tuesday, while defender Hunter Jumper (Sr., Plano, Texas) also had a big night with a goal and a pair of assists – all off long kicks. His corner kick in the waning seconds also led to Span’s winning score.
With the four-goal night against the Demon Deacons, Virginia has scored four goals in each of its last two games (also against NC State). This marks the first time since 1995 that UVa scored four goals in back-to-back games against ACC foes. UVa entered the week 12th nationally in goals with 36.
Three Virginia men’s soccer players were selected to the 2011 All-ACC Team, announced Thursday by the conference office. Forward Will Bates (Jr., Chester, Va.) earned a spot on the first team, while Brian Ownby (Sr., Glen Allen, Va.) and Span each were voted to the second team.
In addition the Cavaliers’ three all-conference honorees, UVa’s Ryan Zinkhan (Fr., Fredericksburg, Va.) was named to the 2011 ACC All-Freshman Team. The All-ACC teams were compiled following a vote of the league’s nine head coaches.
Ranked as high as No. 2 nationally, North Carolina (15-2-2) moved into the semifinal round with a 4-0 beatdown of NC State on Tuesday in Chapel Hill. Four Tar Heels scored in the contest, while Enzo Martinez and Kirk Urso each chipped in with a pair of assists. UNC put seven players on the 2011 All-ACC team, including four on the first team. Matt Hedges was named the ACC’s Defensive Player of the Year, while Mikey Lopez earned Freshman of the Year honors.
UNC defeated Virginia, 3-0, on Sept. 23 in Charlottesville. The Tar Heels scored a pair of goals in the game’s final 15 minutes to break open a close contest. UNC owns a slim 36-34-7 advantage in the all-time series with Virginia, which dates to 1946. Prior the Tar Heels’ win in September, the previous six meetings all came down to a single goal.
Virginia has an all-time record of 37-13-7 at the ACC Men’s Soccer Championship. UVa has won 10 tournament titles (1988, 1991-95, 1997, 2003-04, 2009) and owns a 12-5-3 record all-time in ACC tournament games played in Cary.
Virginia sports a 5-2 record against North Carolina in ACC tournament play. UVa and UNC have not met in the tournament in 11 years. The programs’ last ACC tournament meeting came in the 2000 championship game, which the Tar Heels won 1-0 in overtime in Winston-Salem.