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No. 24 Virginia Faces First Road Test on Saturday

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 24 Virginia (5-4-1, 1-0 ACC Spring) will travel to North Carolina (4-3-2, 1-0 ACC Spring) for an ACC Coastal Division showdown on Saturday night (March 13). The match is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start at Dorrance Field and will be broadcast live on ACCNX. 

Game Coverage: ACCNX is available to authenticated subscribers of ACC Network via the ESPN App. 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

  • Virginia entered the top 25 of the United Soccer Coaches poll for the first time this spring. The Cavaliers were ranked as high as No. 3 in the fall.
  • Duke, North Carolina and Virginia all sit atop the ACC Coastal Division with a 1-0 record.
  • North Carolina and Virginia come into the match as two of the top defensive units in the league. In seven ACC games in 2021, the Tar Heels are an ACC-low, 0.57 GAA while the Cavaliers rank fourth with a 1.14 GAA in seven ACC matches.
  • Saturday night will be one of three regular season road matches of the spring for Virginia who posted a 1-1-1 mark away from Klöckner Stadium this past Fall.

 

AGAINST NORTH CAROLINA

  • Saturday will be the first match against North Carolina since the 2019 regular season finale in which Virginia clinched its first ACC Coastal Division Championship on a golden goal by Andreas Ueland in the 100th minute.
  • The two programs have played each other every season since 1946 with the excep­tion of 2018 when weather forced the regular season finale to be canceled.
  • Saturday will mark the 87th meeting between the two programs. Duke is the only other program Virginia has squared off against more.
  • North Carolina holds a 46-40-10 edge in the all-time series and since George Gelnovatch took over the program, Virginia is 12-12-4

STOUT DEFENSE

  • Virginia has not conceded a goal in its last 187 minutes played dating back to the fall and have opened the spring with clean sheets against George Mason and Notre Dame.
  • Against Notre Dame last Sunday, the Cavaliers did not allow a single shot on goal.
  • Defender Oliver Gerbig was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Week after playing all 184 minutes in the defensive juggernauts. He also contributed with his first assist on the game-winning goal against George Mason.
  • With the departure of All-American Colin Shutler for the professional ranks, sophomore Alex Rando has seen all the action in front of the net for the Cavaliers. In the five matches Rando has started in 2020-21, Virginia is 3-2.

LATE GAME HEROICS

  • Jeremy Verley emerged as the hero of last Sunday’s 1-0 win over Notre Dame after his free kick service found its way into the back of the net for a golden goal in the 95th minute. The tally was the first of his career and the sophomore now has three points in his last two games. Five of his eight career appearances have occurred in the 2020-21 season.
  • Virginia found itself in overtime for the fifth time in 10 games and improved to 2-2-1 in extra sessions.
  • Three of the five game-winning goals this season have come after the 75th minute.

MILESTONE VICTORY

  • Virginia became the first program in ACC history to reach 200 regular season games with a 1-0 win over Notre Dame on March 7. Of the 200 wins, 91 have come in the 25-year tenure of George Gelnovatch.
  • Gelnovatch became the fastest coach in ACC history to reach 90 wins (25 seasons) and is second to only Duke’s John Rennie (96 wins in 29 seasons) for the most ACC regular season wins ever.

VIRGINIA TRENDS

  • 10 different Cavaliers have scored a goal in 2020-21 and a total of 14 have registered a point. A tribute to the youth on the Cavalier squad, eight of the 14 have registered their first collegiate point this season.
  • Irakoze Donasiyano made his 51st consecutive start as a Cavalier against Notre Dame last Sunday. He has played the last 1,253 minutes of action for Virginia.
  • Virginia scored its two quickest goals of the season against George Mason. Both came just 10:48 into the contest, in eight fall games, the Cavaliers did not score in the first 15 minutes of any match.
  • Defender Oliver Gerbig had an assist on Tuesday against George Mason, his first collegiate point. He has played every minute of every match since transferring this fall from Coastal Carolina.
  • Goalkeeper Alex Rando did not make a save against Notre Dame but was credited with his third career shutout. He made three stops in the spring opener against George Mason.

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