West Virginia got on the scoreboard three minutes in, but UVA got the equalizer in short order, took the lead later in the first half, and rode a solid defensive second half to a 2-1 victory over the Mountaineers in a second-round NCAA Tournament match on Sunday night at Klöckner Stadium.
With the win, the Cavaliers (11-6-3) advance to the third round of the 2024 NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship, where they will host UMass on either Saturday (Nov. 30) or Sunday (Dec. 1) on ESPN+.
In this one, WVU (13-2-7) opened the scoring in the third minute of play on a corner sent into the box and headed across the face of goal by Simon Carlson, which Marcus Calderia volleyed into the roof of the net to put Virginia a goal down early.
Three minutes later, Virginia had its answer. A long ball sent over the top from Nick Dang was headed along by AJ Smith for Albin Gashi to run on with only the goalkeeper to beat. A sliding effort by West Virginia’s Marc Bonnaire got a piece of the ball, causing Gashi to go to ground. Falling to the turf, Gashi connected with a swing of the left foot to send the ball into an open goal and put Virginia back on level terms at 1-1
Just past the half-hour mark, Virginia nudged itself in front. Danny Mangarov was fouled while playing a ball over his head. With the referee playing advantage, Brendan Lamb collected the ball and raced down the left wing.
With a low cross along the face of goal, Lambe found Smith who tapped it home to put the Cavaliers up 2-1.
The Cavaliers stood tall defensively in the second half, facing eight attempts at goal while UVA keeper Joey Batrouni snuffed out all three on frame. Virginia would hold on to seal the comeback victory by a score of 2-1 and advance to the third round.
“That was a great playoff win against a very good West Virginia team,” UVA coach George Gelnovatch said. When the final RPI came out at the end of the season after all the tournaments were played, they were sixteenth. We just played what I think was one of the top teams in this tournament in our first game and we did a great job of handling it. We did a great job handling giving up an early goal, too.”
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Chris Graham
