Spring Slate Unveiled for Virginia Men’s Soccer

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia men’s soccer program announced on Monday (Feb. 15) it will play an eight-game spring schedule beginning on March 2 with a home game against George Mason. The Cavaliers will play an exhibition match against Virginia Tech on Feb. 22 at Klöckner Stadium that will be streamed live on ACCNX.

The Atlantic Coast Conference will return to Atlantic and Coastal divisions this spring with each school playing five matches within its respective division and one cross-division game. The Atlantic Division champion will play the Coastal Division champion at the higher seed on April 13. The winner of the divisional champion match will play at Clemson (which won the ACC Championship in the fall) on April 17 to determine the ACC’s automatic qualifier for the NCAA Tournament. If Clemson is the Atlantic Division champion, the April 13 match against the Coastal Division champion will be played to determine the league’s automatic qualifier.

The NCAA Tournament begins on Saturday, April 24 and will be scaled back from a 48-team field to a 36-team, single-elimination tournament with 24 conferences receiving an automatic qualification. The remaining 12 teams will be selected on an at-large basis.

In addition to the spring season opener, Virginia will play Notre Dame (March 7), Virginia Tech (March 19), Central Arkansas (March 23) and Duke (March 28) at home. The Cavaliers will play road matches at North Carolina (March 13), Louisville (April 2) and Pitt (April 8).

The Cavaliers reached the ACC Tournament Semifinal last November before bowing to eventual champion Clemson, 2-1 in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Cavaliers finished the ACC-only fall schedule with a 3-4-1 overall record.

Additional broadcast designations will be announced at a later date.

2021 Spring Schedule by the Numbers
8 total matches (plus 1 exhibition)
5 home matches
3 road matches
5 ACC matches (4 Coastal, 1 Atlantic)
2 non-conference matches

Storylines

• The non-conference match against Central Arkansas will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools. The Bears play out of the Sun Belt Conference and the March 23 match will be the finale for Central Arkansas’ seven-game spring slate.
• Virginia played all but two (North Carolina and Duke) of its spring opponents this past fall, posting a 1-2-1 mark.
• In the final United Soccer Coaches rankings of the fall, the ACC claimed three of the five spots – No. 1 Clemson, No. 2 Pitt and No. 4 Virginia Tech. The Cavaliers began the fall of 2020 as the No. 3 team in the country and dropped out of the top-5 after week four.

Attendance Guidelines

The current guidelines for sports venues provided by the Commonwealth of Virginia under the “Forward Virginia” plan (updated Nov. 13, 2020), allow for the lesser of 30 percent occupancy of the facility or 250 patrons.Due to health and safety considerations, in addition to the current guidelines for sports venues set by the Commonwealth of Virginia, attendance at UVA home matches at Klockner Stadium will be limited to the family of student-athletes and coaching staff until further notice.

Should the Commonwealth of Virginia adjust the protocols for spectator attendance, the UVA athletics department will announce new capacity guidelines and other protocols to attend events.