On the heels of back-to-back losing seasons, the Virginia men’s soccer team isn’t off to a good start to its 2022 campaign, losing its season opener, 1-0, to Xavier on Thursday night at Klöckner Stadium.
The Cavaliers possessed the ball for 59 percent of the match, and outshot Xavier 19-3, but couldn’t find the back of the net despite the advantages.
In the 86th minute of play, Xavier earned a corner kick, and the ball fell to the feet of Xavier’s Kendall Allen whose attempt was saved by a diving Holden Brown in goal. The rebound was put home by Brandon Allen on just the third shot of the game for the Musketeers.
Eight Cavaliers made their Virginia debut, including Albin Gashi, Moritz Kappelsberger, Reese Miller and Umberto Pelà, who all started the match.
“It’s frustrating, but it’s early in the season, and we are coming at it from the standpoint of not getting too high or too low,” UVA coach George Gelnovatch said. “However, we understand the dynamic of coming off last year and what we want to do and so we’re upset. Overall, I think we put a lot of time into recruiting this team. I think the talent is good. And we could see that in our exhibition games.”
Virginia will return to action when they host Rider on Monday, August 29. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
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Chris Graham
