Virginia Knocks Off Top-Seeded Wake Forest in ACC Quarters

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Virginia (3-3-1) upended the No. 2 team in the country and top seed out of the South Region in Wake Forest (7-2-0) with a 2-0 victory in the quarterfinal round of the ACC Tournament on Sunday (Nov. 15). The Cavaliers advance to play Clemson in the ACC Semifinals on Wednesday (Nov. 18).

Junior Cabrel Happi Kamseu (Harare, Zimbabwe) scored his first two goals of the season and the Cavaliers produced their second shutout of the Fall.

After checking into the game just one minute and 18 seconds prior, Kamseu elevated to get head on high deflection in the box for the game’s first goal in the 31^st minute. After an official review, it was confirmed that the shot had crossed the end line and gave UVA the early 1-0 advantage.

Kamseu, who started the second half, intercepted a Wake Forest pass deep in the Demon Deacon zone and chipped the turnover over the goalkeeper’s head to put the Cavaliers on top, 2-0.

“I think that this was probably our first, from start to finish, complete performance where we really, really played well,” head coach George Gelnovatch said. “We knew the opposition was going to bring more intensity, more focus and that we needed to be ready for it and our team responded.”

Virginia improved to 16-0-5 against Wake Forest in ACC Tournament play and have now won three-straight matches against the Demon Deacons including last year’s semifinal matchup in the NCAA College Cup.

Graduate student Colin Shutler (Middleburg, Va.) made his first start in goal since Oct. 18 and made a pair of key stops in the Cavalier clean sheet. Junior Oliver Gerbig (Taipei, Taiwan) assisted in a big way, making a sliding stop in the 80^th minute on a wide-open shot attempt by Wake Forest’s Koby Carr.

Shutler was credited with his 24^th career shutout, which moves him into a tie with Diego Restrepo for the third most in UVA history. The 24 clean sheets are the second most among active NCAA goalkeepers.

Earlier in the day, Clemson defeated Virginia Tech 4-1 in Durham, N.C. Wednesday’s semifinal between Clemson and Virginia will play a rematch of last year’s ACC Championship game where each team was ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the country respectively. A game time and location will be announced later tonight.

Additional Notes

• Happi Kamseu was the first Virginia multi-goal scorer since Daryl Dike scored twice against Wake Forest in last year’s College Cup semifinal. He is the 12^th Cavalier to record a multi-goal match in ACC Tournament play and the first since Pablo Aguilar scored twice against Boston College in the 2017 quarterfinals.
• Coming into the game, seven different Cavaliers were responsible for the seven Virginia goals. Happi Kamseu vaults himself into the team lead and is the eighth different goal scorer in seven games for the Cavaliers.
• The victory was the 341^st of Coach Gelnovatch’s career, moving him into sole possession of 10^th place among active NCAA coaches.
• Jeremy Verley (Kingston, Jamaica) made his first start in a Virginia uniform and logged 81 minutes
• Irakoze Donasiyano (Roanoke, Va.) made his 48^th straight start and played all 90 minutes. Donasiyano, Andreas Ueland (Byrne, Norway), Bret Halsey (Sterling, Va.) and Gerbig have played every minute of the season for Virginia.