No. 10 Virginia Resumes ACC Play at No. 7 Notre Dame

Sept. 28, 2017

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 10 Virginia (6-1-1, 1-1-1 ACC) will be on the road Friday night (Sept. 29) to take on No. 7 Notre Dame (6-2, 2-1 ACC) at 7:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on ACC Network Extra.

Coverage: ACC Network Extra is available to authenticated subscribers of ESPN3 through WatchESPN and the ESPN app. will be available on VirginiaSports.com. Fans can also get in-game updates on the men’s soccer official twitter feed (@UVAMenSoccer).

Match Notes

• Friday will be the second top-10 matchup for Virginia in the last three games.
• All three nationally-ranked foes Virginia has faced this season have come in at No. 7 (Syracuse, UNC, Notre Dame).
• In midweek action, Notre Dame fell to No. 1 Indiana, 1-0 on the road on Tuesday night (Sept. 26)
• Notre Dame will be the second of four, regular-season road opponents for Virginia in 2017 (Virginia Tech, N.C. State, Duke).

Series History

• Virginia is 6-3-2 all-time against Notre Dame and 3-3-2 since the Fighting Irish joined the ACC prior to the 2013 season.
• Notre Dame has won the last two meetings in South Bend and owns a 3-2 advantage over Virginia at Alumni Stadium.
• The two schools have met in three of the last four ACC Tournaments and twice in the NCAA Tournament.
• In Virginia’s 2014 National Championship run, the Cavaliers and Fighting Irish met three times in the same season. The teams tied in the regular season, Notre Dame knocked out Virginia in the ACC Tournament and the Cavaliers won, 1-0 in the NCAA Tournament.

Last Second Win

• A Jean-Christophe Koffi goal with one second remaining in regulation helped Virginia to a 1-0 win over Davidson on Monday night (Sept. 25).
• The Cavaliers tied the game up at one with a penalty kick goal off the foot of Sergi Nus, his fourth of the season and third by virtue of the PK.
• It marked the first Cavalier come-from-behind victory of the season and the third-straight contest decided by one goal.

Virginia Attack

• A total of 11 of the 18 Cavalier goals this season have come in the second half.
• Virginia has trailed only once this season at halftime, 1-0 against Syracuse on Sept. 8. The two teams went on to play a 2-2- draw.
• Including Monday night’s win, the Cavaliers have scored multiple goals in the second half four times in 2017.
• The Cavaliers have only trailed its opponent for a total of 69:59 through eight games.
• Averaging 2.25 goals per game, Virginia goes into Friday night with fourth-best scoring offense in the ACC behind North Carolina, Wake Forest and Clemson.

Team Leaders

• Junior Edward Opoku leads the Cavaliers with 12 points (5g, 2 a), the third most in the ACC. He has scored four of the seven games he’s played in.
• Pablo Aguilar was credited with his team-best, third assist on Koffi’s game-winner on Monday night. He now has assists in back-to-back games for the second time in his career.
• Sergi Nus is a perfect 3-for-3 in penalty kick attempts this season, including the game-winner in overtime against Villanova in the season opener. Nus leads the team with a pair of game-winning goals this year.

In Goal

• Virginia goalkeeper Jeff Caldwell earned his 28^th career win on Monday night against Davidson.
• The senior has played every minute of the last 46 games for Virginia.
• He currently ranks in the top-10 in career saves (5^th – 165), career shutouts (T-4^th – 19) and career minutes played (4^th – 4,555) in Virginia history.

Noting Notre Dame

• Ranked No. 1 in the country prior to the start of last week’s ACC play, Notre Dame was upset by Virginia Tech, 2-1 in Blacksburg. The Hokies’ Marcelo Acuna scored twice, including the game-winner in the 70^th minute en route to ACC Offensive Player of the Week honors.
• In the Midweek, the Irish went on the road to take on new No. 1 Indiana on Tuesday (Sept. 26) and suffered a 1-0 setback. An Austin Panchot goal in the 67^th minute proved to be the difference. The Irish were out-shot, 13-8 and out-cornered, 8-3 in the contest.
• -The Notre Dame back line has surrendered just six goals this season, the second-fewest in the ACC.
• The Irish opened the season by winning its first six games and in the process secured ACC wins over Boston College (3-1) and NC State (3-0)
• Last year’s ACC Offensive Player of the Year, Jon Gallagher, leads the team and is tied for second in the ACC with six goals.