Virginia Closes Regular Season Home Slate on Sunday

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia (7-5-1, 2-1-0 ACC Spring) will take on Duke (3-9-2, 1-2-0 ACC Spring) in its final regular season home match of the spring season on Sunday (March 28). The match is scheduled for a 1 p.m. start at Klöckner Stadium 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.

Ticket Information

Due to the limited number of tickets, the new attendance policy will include pre-sale ticket access for UVA students and each sport program’s donors and season ticket holders. Following the pre-sale process, remaining tickets will be made available to the general public at 10 a.m. on March 28.

Fans must purchase a pair of tickets. All tickets are general admission and will be $5 each. Tickets can be purchased on UVATix.com or from Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. by calling the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office at 434-924-8821.

FOR STARTERS

• A victory on Sunday would secure program win No. 800. The Cavaliers are looking to become the fifth program in Division I college soccer history to reach the 800-win plateau.
• Going into the weekend, Virginia currently sits tied for second place in the Coastal Division, one point behind division leading North Carolina.
• The Cavaliers are 4-0 this spring and 6-2 overall in 2020-21 at home. An opponent has yet to score on Virginia this spring in four matches, a span of 365 minutes.
• Virginia has won back-to-back games going into Sunday against Duke and is seeking its first three-game win streak of the 2020-21 season.
• Sunday will mark the final regular season home game of the 2020-21 season for the Cavaliers. Virginia will play Louisville (April 2) and Pitt (April 8) on the road to close out the regular.

AGAINST DUKE

• Sunday will be the 91^st meeting between Duke and Virginia in an all-time series that was first played in 1946. Duke is Virginia’s most played opponent over the 76 years of Cavalier soccer.
• The Cavaliers hold 42-38-10 advantage in the all-time series.
• Virginia took down a then-No. 2 Duke team, 3-1 in Durham in the last meeting between the two schools. The victory was fresh off a win over then-No. 1 Maryland 11 days prior.
• Under head coach George Gelnovatch, Virginia is 17-12-3 against the Blue Devils.

NON-CONFERENCE WRAP UP

• Virginia played its final non-conference match of the spring on Tuesday, a 1-0 victory over Central Arkansas, the first ever meeting between the two schools.
• Leo Afonso was credited with the game-winner in the 8^th minute. The goal matched Axel Gunnarsson’s tally against George Mason for the quickest goal of the year. Both occurred at exactly 7:56 into the match.
• Reigning ACC co-Defensive Player of the Week, Alex Rando made six saves to establish a new career high and recorded his fifth shutout.
• Virginia defeated both of its non-conference opponents, George Mason and Central Arkansas by a combined score of 4-0.

HOW THEY SCORE IT

• Virginia is 7-1 in 2020-21 when scoring first.
• Afonso became the 11^th different goals scorer for Virginia this season. He’s the fifth Cavalier to score their first collegiate goal in 2020-21.
• After entering the season with Jeremy Verley has a point in all four wins for the Cavaliers this spring.

ALL TIME WINS – DI MEN’S SOCCER

UCLA – 986
Penn St. – 852
UConn – 828
San Francisco – 822
Virginia – 799

NOTES/TRENDS

• Virginia leads the ACC and is tied for second in the NCAA with 53 total saves
• The Cavaliers moved up two spots in the College Soccer News National rankings to No. 22. Virginia was not included in this week’s United Soccer Coaches poll.
• After not registering a point in six career games prior to this spring, sophomore Jeremy Verley has a point in four of the five games this spring. He scored the game-winning goal against Notre Dame and assisted on Afonso’s game-winner against Central Arkansas.
• Including Afonso’s goal against Central Arkansas, five of the 17 UVA goals have come off set pieces.
• Oliver Gerbig and Irakoze Donasiyano are the only two Cavaliers to have played every minute of action this season. Donasiyano made his 54th consecutive start on Tuesday vs. Central Arkansas.
• Rando is tops in the ACC in save percentage (.848) and ranks second among his ACC cohorts in goals against average (0.61). His five shutouts, four of which have come this spring, are tied for the second most in the conference.
• Louis Evans became the 14^th player to play his first game in a Cavalier uniform this season. Evans, a grad transfer from Davidson, played the final 45 minutes against Central Arkansas.