Virginia Downs Cal 2-1, Advances to ACC Championship Match Sunday

CARY, N.C. – In a hard-fought and physical ACC semifinal, the Cavaliers delivered a pair of late goals on Thursday night (Nov. 13) at First Horizon Stadium, to secure its fifth straight victory. Top-seeded and 4th-ranked Virginia (12-1-4) downed 12th-seeded California (8-8-2) 2-1 to advance to its first appearance in the ACC Men’s Soccer Championship final since 2019.  

Goals (Assist)
74’ Virginia – Own Goal
82’ Virginia – Smith (Dos Santos)
87’ California – Morrison 

How it Happened:  

• The Cavaliers were outshot in the opening half by a margin of 7-2 but limited the Golden Bears to just two shots on target.  

• Virginia created the best scoring chance of the opening half just 10 minutes into the match when Nick Simmonds got on the end of a long ball played behind the Cal back line. With only the goalkeeper to beat, the freshman forward put his chance off the far post as the score remained locked at 0-0.  

• The teams continued a physical battle deep into the second half, but Virginia broke through in the 74th minute when Nick Dang played Jesus De Vicente through the Cal back line. A low cross in front of goal was poked in into the back of the net by an outstretched Cal defender. 

• Eight minutes later, Virginia doubled its lead as Marco Dos Santos flicked a ball back into the Cal penalty area. After taking a deflection off a Golden Bear defender, AJ Smith blasted it into the net for 2-0.  

• Cal pulled a goal back when a ball was headed towards the far post of the Virginia goal where Beau Morrison was there to head it back towards the face of goal. After video review, it was determined that the ball crossed the goal line to cut the Virginia lead to 2-1. 

With the Win:  

• Virginia advances to the ACC Championship game for the first time since 2019 

• The Cavaliers improve their unbeaten streak to 14 games with four consecutive victories 

• The Cavaliers improve to 50-21-14 all-time in the ACC tournament  

• UVA improves to 3-1-1 against the Golden Bears all-time 

Additional Notes:  

• Smith recorded his third goal of the season, which is also his third career post-season goal 

• Dos Santos had his ninth assist of the season, which is tied for most assists in the ACC 

• Dos Santos’s nine assists is a single-season career high 

• Simmonds recorded four shots during the game 

• The Cavaliers held California to only 5 shots on goal for the night 

• Casper Mols made three saves in goal 

From Head Coach George Gelnovatch: 
“I said this at halftime, that one of the things we had to get straight was our wing back rotation defensively, and Jesus was a big part of that dynamic, we pushed him a little bit higher and dropped Reese a little bit. So, we made that adjustment. I think that helps in our defensive shape, and the other thing we talked about at halftime was I was pretty sure they weren’t able to keep up that pressure, because they came with a lot of energy…they can really defend and not giving up a goal or even a really good chance in the first half was good to get to get into half 0-0, because I felt like in the second half, we would wear them down and I think that’s what happened” 

Up Next:
The top-seeded Cavaliers advance to the ACC Championship game on Sunday (Nov. 16) where they will await the winner between SMU and Syracuse. The championship match will air on ESPNU with kickoff set for 1 p.m.