No. 16 Virginia Squares off against No. 6 Louisville in ACC Quarterfinal

Nov. 4, 2017

2017 ACC Tournament Bracket | ACC Championship Page

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Sixth-seeded Virginia (11-3-3) will travel to third-seeded Louisville (11-2-3) on Sunday (Nov. 5) for an Atlantic Coast Conference Quarterfinal match at Lynn Stadium. The contest is scheduled for a 1 p.m. start and 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. Live Stats will be available on VirginiaSports.com. Fans can also get in-game updates on the men’s soccer official twitter feed (@UVAMenSoccer).

Match Notes

• Louisville and Virginia meet for the second-straight year in the ACC Quarterfinals in Louisville as the No. 3 seed and the No. 6 seed respectively.
• The Cardinals earned a first-round bye after compiling an ACC record of 5-2-1.
• Virginia advanced to the ACC Quarterfinals after a 4-0 win over Boston College in the first round on Wednesday (Nov. 1).
• No. 6 Louisville is the fifth ranked opponent for Virginia this season and the highest ranked foe that Cavaliers will face in 2017.
• Virginia comes into the match ranked 19th in the country in total goals with 32.
• Sunday will be Virginia’s fifth road match of the season. All four of its road contests this season have come in ACC play.

UVA in the ACC Tournament

• The Cavaliers come into the contest with an overall record of 41-18-10 in the ACC Tournament.
• The 15 total ACC Championships and the 10 tournament titles are the most among active league members.
• Virginia has not reached a ACC Tournament semifinal since 2013 and have been eliminated in its last three quarterfinal matches.

Series History

• Louisville has taken three of the four matchups against Virginia including two last season at Lynn Stadium.
• The Cardinals eliminated Virginia with a 1-0 victory in last year’s quarterfinal. Louisville scored in the 55th minute, snapping Virginia’s 522-minute opponent scoreless streak.
• Three of the four games against Louisville have been decided by one goal, including a 3-2 win by Virginia on Oct. 2 2015 at Klöckner Stadium.
• In the 2016 regular season, Louisville came away with a 6-1 victory at home over the Cavaliers, the most goals by a Cavalier opponent since Maryland scored six in a regular season matchup on Oct. 25, 1975.

How We Got Here

• Virginia scored all four of its goals against Boston College in the first half, the most in the opening 45 minutes since Sept. 11, 2012, a span of 117 games.
• It marked the ninth time that Virginia scored four-goals in an ACC Tournament game and matched the program’s largest margin of victory in the tournament.
• Redshirt senior Pablo Aguilar recorded his first multi-goal game of his career after he scored twice in Wednesday night’s win.
• The scoreless tie was broken by Virginia’s first own goal of the year in the 10th minute. It was the fourth own goal scored by the Cavaliers all-time in the ACC Tournament.
• Edward Opoku scored his team-leading, eighth goal of the year to cap off the first half scoring outburst.

Offensive Notes

• – Aguilar and Opoku each have 16 career goals, tied for the most among active Cavaliers.
• In 14 career postseason games, Aguilar has four goals, three in the ACC Tournament.
• Prior to the Boston College win, Virginia had scored 20 of its 28 goals (71%) after halftime. The Cavaliers had only scored multiple goals in the first half once, netting two against Hofstra on Aug. 31.
• Having a career year offensively, junior center back Sergi Nus recorded his first career assist, feeding Aguilar on his first goal Wednesday night against BC. He now has 13 points (6g, 1a) this season, the third most on the team.

Career Notes

• With 27 minutes played on Sunday, goalkeeper Jeff Caldwell will take over sole possession of third place on UVA’s all-time minutes played list. He has logged 5,415 minutes in 57 career games.
• Until he was relieved in the 79th minute against Boston College, Caldwell had played every minute of the previous 54 games in goal for Virginia.

Inside the Numbers

• Scoring early has been paramount for the Cavaliers who are 7-1-1 when scoring first. The Cavaliers have mounted four, come-from-behind victories this season (Villanova, Davidson, Portland, Lehigh).
• Virginia has played in eight overtime contests this year in which they boast a 4-1-3 record.
• The Cavaliers are seeking their first victory over a ranked opponent this season and are 0-2-2 against ranked foes in 2017.

National Rankings

• Virginia enters the ACC Tournament with a .735 winning percentage, tied for 19th highest in the country.
• In the United Soccer Coaches Poll, Virginia dropped to No. 16, its lowest national ranking of the season.
• The Cavaliers are still ranked in the top 10 according to TopDrawerSoccer.com, coming in at No. 9. Soccer America has Virginia at No. 18 its weekly national poll, down eight spots from the Oct. 24 poll.
• Virginia is one of seven ACC schools anchoring spots in the top 11 in the latest NCAA RPI rankings. The Cavaliers currently sit at No. 11 while Louisville comes in at No. 4.

Noting Louisville

• The Cardinals haven’t seen game action since Friday, Oct. 27, a 2-1 win at No. 4 Clemson in their regular season finale.
• Louisville comes into Sunday’s match ranked 16th in the country in goals against average (.717). Earlier in the season, the Cardinals set school record by holding opponents scoreless for 563 consecutive minutes.
• The offensive trio of Tate Schmitt (7g, 3a), Mohamed Thaiw (8g, 1a) and Tim Kubel (6g, 5a) each have 17 points to pace the Cardinal attack.
• Cardinal starting goalkeeper Jake Gelnovatch, is the son of Virginia head coach George Gelnovatch. Sunday will mark the first time the two square off. Jake Gelnovatch, a redshirt freshman, has played in 10 games, boasting a goals against average of .867, the third lowest in the ACC.