Virginia Returns Home to Host Syracuse on Friday Night

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia (1-2-1, 1-2-1 ACC) will play its final two games of the regular season at Klöckner Stadium beginning with a matchup against Syracuse (0-2-2, 0-2-2 ACC) on Friday night (Oct. 30). The contest will air live on Regional Sports Networks at 8 p.m.

Due to health and safety considerations in addition to the current guidelines established for sports venues by the Commonwealth of Virginia, attendance at UVA home competitions is limited to family of student-athletes and each team’s coaching staff until further notice. There is no public admission to these events and all tailgating in University parking lots is prohibited.

Game Coverage: A complete list of regional sports networks that are scheduled to broadcast the match can be found here. The match can also be viewed on the ESPN app and is subject to blackout. Links for the live stream and in-game live stats are available on VirginiaSports.com. Fans can also follow the Virginia men’s soccer official twitter account (@UVAMenSoccer) for in-game updates.

FOR STARTERS

• Friday night will be a rematch of last year’s ACC Quarterfinal match that saw Virginia advance in a 2-1 victory en route to the program’s 13^th ACC Title.
• The Cavaliers have opened up the 2020 season with four-straight overtime matches for the first time in program history.
• The match is the sixth meeting between the two schools since Syracuse joined the ACC in 2013. Virginia owns a 3-1-1 edge in the all-time series.
• The two programs were originally scheduled to play an exhibition on Sept. 19 in Charlottesville before the two programs mutually agreed to flip the locations of their two scheduled meetings in 2020. The exhibition eventually was canceled due to COVID related precautions by the Orange and the home regular season game remained for Virginia.
• Virginia has dropped back-to-back games for the first time since 2015 and is looking to avoid its first three-game losing streak since 2003.
• Prior to the match Virginia will honor four seniors – Beau Bradley, Nathaniel Crofts, Irakoze Donasiyano and Spencer Patton.

FIRST TIMERS

• Redshirt freshman Alex Rando made his collegiate debut at goalkeeper last week against Notre Dame, making four saves including a few highlight worthy stops in the back third of the match. Rando is only the third goalkeeper since Aug. 24, 2018 to start for the Cavaliers.
• Including Rando, 10 players have made their debuts in Virginia uniforms this season – Leo Afonso, Nick Berghold, Isaiah Byrd, Rafael Caipo, Kaya Ignacio, Oliver Gerbig (transfer), Joan Gibert-Fuertes, Reed Kessler and Kevin Ogudugu (Transfer).
• Of the six Virginia goals in 2020, three were the first of the collegiate careers of Ignacio, Fuertes and Berghold.

ROAD TRIP RECAP

• The Cavaliers suffered their first regular season road loss since the 2018 NCAA Tournament last weekend at Notre Dame, 2-1 in double overtime. Coincidently the last regular season home loss for the Cavaliers also came in South Bend, a 1-0 extra time setback.
• Axel Gunnarsson gave Virginia its first, first-half lead of the season with a goal in the 22^nd minute. The lead would last until the 54^th minute on a goal by Notre Dame’s Jack Lynn.
• The Irish were the beneficiaries of an own goal in the 103^rd minute, the second golden goal victory for Notre Dame against Virginia in the last three matchups.
• Freshman Rafael Caipo was credited with his first collegiate point, assisting on Gunnarsson’s go-ahead goal.

EXTRA TIME

• The Cavaliers last played four-straight overtimes in 2012 and eventually set a school record by playing five-straight OT matches (Oct. 19 – Nov. 9).
• Of the 15 overtime matches played in college soccer this fall, Virginia (4) and Syracuse (3) have been part of seven of them. Central Arkansas is the only other school to play extra time in three matches this season.
• Virginia went 3-1-1 in overtime last season is 8-6-15 in extra time since 2016.

TRENDING

• Virginia has six different goal scorers through four games this season
• The Cavaliers have allowed seven goals through the first four games, the most since 2013
• Senior Irakoze Donasiyano is expected to start his 46^th-straight game, the longest active streak on the team. He also is tied for the team lead in minutes played with 413
• With the top-four teams from the North Region qualifying for the ACC Tournament, The Cavaliers are tied for third place with four points.
• Of the 10 teams ranked in TopDrawerSoccer.com’s weekly Power Rankings, Virginia is ranked ninth and has been as high as No. 1 (Sept. 21) this fall.

RUN FOR 90

• George Gelnovatch seeking 90th career ACC win and would be the fastest coach in ACC history to 90 ACC regular season wins.
• Only two other coaches in ACC history have reached the 90-win mark.

John Rennie (Duke)                   95 wins in 29 seasons
I.M. Ibrahim (Clemson)              90 wins in 28 seasons
George Gelnovatch (Virginia)     89 wins in 25 seasons