CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Fifth-ranked Virginia (1-0-0, 1-0-0 ACC) will play its first road match of the season when it travels to Virginia Tech (0-1-0, 0-1-0 ACC) on Wednesday night (Oct. 14). The match will be carried live on ACC Network with a start time of 8 p.m.

GAME COVERAGE

ACC network is available through participating TV providers. For more information on how to get ACC Network, visit GetACCN.com. Links for the live stream and in-game live stats will be available on VirginiaSports.com. Note, only subscribers of ACC Network will be able to stream the match through the ESPN app. Fans can also follow the Virginia men’s soccer official twitter account (@UVAMenSoccer) for in-game updates.

FOR STARTERS

  • The Cavaliers come into Wednesday with a seven-game win streak against ACC opponents dating back to last season. The streak, that includes the 2019 postseason, began with a 2-0 win over then-No. 25 Virginia Tech on Oct. 25, 2019.
  • Head Coach George Gelnovatch is seeking his 90th career ACC regular season victory and looking to become only the third coach in ACC history with 90 league wins.
  • Wednesday is one of two road games this season (Notre Dame – Oct. 24) for Virginia. The Cavaliers went 3-0-1 in true road games in 2019.
  • Virginia and Virginia Tech will play two times in 2020, the second meeting occurring on Nov. 6 at Klöckner Stadium. The two programs have played twice in one season on two occasions, 1961 and 2014.
  • Both Virginia and Virginia Tech played their first matches of the season this past weekend. Every other ACC team has played two or more games at this junction of the season.
  • Virginia is ranked fifth for the third-straight week and has been ranked in the top 5 in all but one week since Sept. 17, 2019.

ELITE COMPANY

  • George Gelnovatch seeking 90th career ACC win and one more victory make him the fastest coach in ACC history to 90 ACC regular season wins.
  • Only three coaches in ACC history have reached the 90-win mark.
  • Gelnovatch has one other milestone victory at Virginia Tech, he won his 300th game at Thompson Field on Sept. 15, 2017.
Most ACC Regular Season Wins All-Time
 Coach (School)  Wins  Years
 John Rennie (Duke)  95  29
 I.M. Ibrahim (Clemson)  90  28
 George Gelnovatch  89  25

QUARTER CENTURY AT THE HELM

  • George Gelnovatch enters his 25th season as head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers, a tenure that is marked by two National Championships, five ACC Championships, six College Cup appearances and 24 consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament.
  • Gelnovatch is one of nine active coaches that have 24 or more years at only one school and his 339 career wins are the most among the group.
  • He currently stands as the ACC’s longest tenured coach and ranks third all-time amongst the league’s coaches in career victories.
  • Gelnovatch is the first coach in NCAA Division I soccer to lead 20-straight teams to the NCAA Tournament.
  • Gelnovatch has won 10 or more games in all 24 seasons as head coach. Only Maryland’s Sasho Cirovski has more consecutive 10+ win seasons (25) among active NCAA head coaches.

SERIES HISTORY

  • Since 2004, Virginia and Virginia Tech have met every year with the exception of the 2015 season.
  • The Cavaliers own a 41-4-5 overall record against the Hokies in an all-time series that dates back to 1960.
  • Virginia is unbeaten in its last 15 matches against Virginia Tech, a stretch that includes five draws.
  • George Gelnovatch is 14-2-5 against Virginia in his tenure as head coach.
  • Since Thompson Field opened in 2003, the Cavaliers are 6-1-2

LAST MEETING

  • Virginia rolled to its 12th shutout in 15 games thanks to a 2-0 win over 25th-ranked Virginia Tech on Oct. 25, 2019.
  • Nathaniel Crofts landed on the 9th spot of SportsCenter’s Top 10 with his game-winning goal in the 33rd minute and later assisted on a Daryl Dike second half tally.
  • Colin Shutler posted five saves, matching a season-high at the time, as Virginia Tech went on to out-shoot Virginia 11-10 in the contest.

HISTORIC OPENING NIGHT

  • Virginia won its seventh-straight season opener with a 2-1, double-overtime victory over Louisville.
  • The 300th all-time victory at Klöckner Stadium was clinched by a Philip Horton PK in the 109th minute.
  • Louisville tied the match in the 90th minute and out-shot the Cavaliers 18-9.
  • The last time Virginia opened its season in October was 1974 (Oct. 1) and the latest a Virginia soccer season has started was in 1946 on Oct. 19, a 3-0 loss in the first of 86 meetings against North Carolina.

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

  • Dating back to last season, Virginia has been outshot seven times and lost only one of those matches, the 2019 National Championship game against Georgetown. After two overtimes, the match ended in a 3-3 draw but the Hoyas prevailed in a penalty kick shootout. By rule, the winner of the shootout in a National Championship game is credited with a win.
When Virginia has been out-shot since 2019
 Opponent  Shot Count  Result  Date
 Notre Dame   13-9  W, 1-0  9/28/19
 Virginia Tech  11-10  W, 2-0  10/25/19
 UNC  16-14  W, 2-1 (OT)  11/1/19
 Clemson  13-11  W, 3-1  11/17/19
 Wake Forest  11-7  W, 2-1  12/13/19
 Georgetown  14-11   L, 3-4 (2OT, PK)  12/15/19
Louisville  18-9  W, 2-1 (2OT)  10/9/20

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

  • Goalkeeper Colin Shutler matched a career-high with eight saves in Friday’s victory on his way to co-ACC Defensive Player of the Week honors as well as a spot on TopDrawerSoccer.com’s National Team of the Week. Shutler has won the ACC Defensive POTW award five times in his career.
  • Shutler owns the lowest career goals against average (0.60) and the highest career save percentage (.820) among active NCAA DI goalkeepers. His 23 career shutouts are the second-most among his active NCAA cohorts and currently tied for the fourth most in UVA history.

8+ Saves by a Virginia Goalkeeper since 2001

9 – Calle Brown at Tulsa (9/5/14)

8 – Colin Shutler vs. Louisville (10/9/20)

8 – Colin Shutler vs. Virginia Tech (9/7/18)

8 – Diego Restrepo vs. James Madison (10/12/10)

8 – Diego Restrepo at Duke (9/11/10)

8 – Ryan Burke at Maryland (10/31/03)

PLAYER NOTABLES

  • Nathaniel Crofts, the Cavaliers leading returning scorer, notched his 11th career goal in the 52nd minute against Louisville. Crofts was nearly credited with his seventh career game-winning goal until Louisville’s Pedro Fonseca scored in the final minute of regulation. Crofts’ five game-winners last season were tied for the second most in the ACC.
  • In their collegiate debuts, Joan Gibert Fuertes and Isaiah Byrd were credited with assists on Crofts’ goal.
  • A total of six Cavaliers played their first games with the program after transferring in (Afonso, Byrd, Kaya Ignacio, Oliver Gerbig (transfer), Fuertes, Reed Kessler).