Virginia Cavaliers men's soccer

Virginia Cavaliers men's soccer
2023 Virginia Cavaliers men's soccer team
Founded	1941; 83 years ago (1941)
University	University of Virginia
Athletic director	Carla Williams
Head coach	George Gelnovatch (28th season)
Conference	ACC Coastal Division
Location	Charlottesville, Virginia
Stadium	Klöckner Stadium (Capacity: 7,100)
Nickname	Cavaliers, Wahoos
Colors	Orange and blue[1]
Home Away
NCAA Tournament championships
1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2009, 2014
NCAA Tournament runner-up
1997, 2019
NCAA Tournament College Cup
1983, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2006, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2019
NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals
1983, 1984, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2019
NCAA Tournament appearances
1969, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023
Conference Tournament championships
1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2019
Conference Regular Season championships
1969, 1970, 1979, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2010, 2019

The Virginia Cavaliers men's soccer team represent the University of Virginia in all NCAA Division I men's soccer competitions. The Virginia Cavaliers are a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Virginia has an extensive reputation as one of the most elite collegiate soccer programs of the United States.^[2] The program has produced several prominent United States national team players such as Claudio Reyna, John Harkes, Jeff Agoos, Ben Olsen, and Tony Meola. Future U.S. national team coach Bruce Arena coached Virginia to five College Cup titles in a six-year period during the 1980s and 1990s, and his protégé George Gelnovatch has since guided the Cavaliers to six College Cups and four championship games, winning two of them.^[3]

The Cavaliers made the College Cup tournament bracket for a record 39 consecutive years, which ended in 2020, the most of any team in the history of the sport. The program has won seven NCAA Championships (1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2009, 2014) and have the most national titles of any program since 1990. Virginia ranks third overall in the sport's championship history since 1959.

The University of Virginia first fielded a varsity men's soccer team in 1941 as a member of the Intercollegiate Soccer Football Association. In their first season, the team posted a winless record, losing all nine of their matches. The Atlantic Coast Conference added soccer in 1955, followed by the first NCAA Men's Division I Soccer Championship in 1959. The team made their first appearance in the NCAA tournament in 1969.

Bruce Arena became Virginia's soccer and assistant lacrosse coach in 1978, moving exclusively to soccer in 1985. The Cavaliers' first tournament victory, over William and Mary in 1983 (a team featuring future comedian Jon Stewart), sparked a run to their first College Cup appearance.

The Cavaliers have qualified for the NCAA tournament every year since 1981; those 39 appearances are a record for men's soccer and one of the longest streaks in any NCAA sport. Their apex came in the late 1980s to early 1990s under Arena, when the team won five national collegiate championships in the span of six years. Future U.S. men's national team stars such as John Harkes and Claudio Reyna were members of these championship teams.

Virginia's first championship, in 1989, came in one of the most famous games in the history of college soccer. Played at Rutgers University on December 3 against Santa Clara, the wind chill was ten degrees below zero at kickoff and fell further during the game. Virginia led the defensive slugfest 1–0 before a rare mistake from Curt Onalfo in the 84th minute allowed Santa Clara to send the game to overtime. As NCAA rules had recently changed to limit games to one 30-minute overtime followed by a 30-minute sudden-death period – after the 1985 final required eight 10-minute extra periods – and did not allow penalty kicks in the final, Virginia and Santa Clara were declared co-champions when the game remained tied 1–1 after 150 minutes.^[4]

The Cavaliers went on to win the 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994 editions of the tournament, and as the first overall seed were upset in the semifinals in 1995. The four consecutive championships remains an NCAA record; no other team managed even three in a row until Stanford did so in 2017.

Arena departed for the new men's professional league Major League Soccer in 1996, where he led D.C. United to three MLS Cup titles, two Supporters' Shields and a CONCACAF Champions League title. He was replaced by longtime assistant George Gelnovatch, who remains the coach today. Gelnovatch returned the team to the 1997 final, where they lost 2–0 to UCLA.

After a string of early-round exits in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the team returned to the College Cup in 2006 and the national championship game in 2009. Playing against the upstart Akron Zips that year, the Cavaliers were able to prevail in a penalty kick shootout to claim their sixth NCAA title, and their first national championship since the Arena years. Virginia added a seventh NCAA championship by defeating UCLA in a shootout in the 2014 tournament.

One of the earliest soccer-specific stadiums in college soccer, the Virginia Cavaliers men's soccer team plays their home matches at the 8,000-seater Klöckner Stadium. Since its opening in 1997, the Cavaliers have enjoyed some of the highest reported attendance figures in American college soccer.

The stadium has 3,600 grandstand seats along with an additional 3,400 grass seats. It is shared with the women's soccer team, as well as the men's and women's lacrosse teams.^[5]

Both UVA and Maryland have NCAA Championship programs in men's soccer. The Virginia Cavaliers have won seven NCAA Championships to Maryland's four. When they were both in the Atlantic Coast Conference, some cited the rivalry between the Cavaliers and the Maryland Terrapins as one of the most bitter rivalries in college soccer.^[6] In 2011, FirstPoint USA rated the rivalry as the third best rivalry in college soccer.^[7]

The Terrapins' departure to the Big Ten has put the annual rivalry on hiatus. Maryland recorded a 1–0 victory in the 2015 NCAA tournament and No. 12 Virginia dethroned No. 1 Maryland, 2–0, in a regular season game on September 2, 2019, helping Virginia to take over the No. 1 ranking weeks later.

As intra-conference members, and having a longstanding rivalry, another one of the top rivals of the Virginia Cavaliers is the Virginia Tech Hokies. The series between the two has been heavily dominated by the Cavaliers, who boast a 31–2–5 record and 14-match unbeaten streak against the Hokies.^[8][9]

As of January 26, 2024^[10]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 0 GK  USA Joey Batrouni 00 GK  USA Caleb Tunks 1 GK  USA Scott Williams 2 DF  USA William Citron 3 MF  USA Max Talley 4 DF  GER Paul Wiese 5 DF  USA Aidan O'Connor 7 FW  BRA Leo Afonso 8 MF  USA Brendan Lambe 9 FW  GHA Stephen Annor Gyamfi 10 MF  NOR Axel Ahlander 11 MF  SEN Mouhameth Thiam 12 MF  SWE Albin Gashi 13 FW  USA Cesar Cordova 15 FW  USA Triton Beauvois 16 MF  USA Daniel Mangarov 17 DF  CAN Victor Akoum 18 FW  USA Kome Ubogu

No. Pos. Nation Player 19 DF  USA Reese Miller 20 FW  USA Ignacio Alem 21 MF  USA Elias Norris 22 FW  USA Michael Tsicoulias 23 FW  USA David Okorie 24 MF  USA Garrett Socas 25 DF  USA Donovan Maryat 26 MF  USA Amari Salley 27 MF  USA Jack Singer 28 MF  USA Matthew Thissell 29 DF  USA Yassine Rhoumar 30 GK  USA Colin Gallagher 31 MF  ITA Umberto Pelà 32 FW  USA Parker Sloan 33 DF  USA Austin Rome 34 MF  USA Miguel Kobby Adoboe 46 DF  USA Matthew Hunter 99 GK  USA Holden Brown

• Updated January 26, 2024

^* – Player has represented their country at the senior national team level

Updated January 26, 2024^[10]

Dates	Name
1941–1950	Lawrence Ludwig
1951–1953	Hugh Moomaw
1954	Wilson Fewster
1955–1957	Robert Sandell
1958–1965	Gene Corrigan
1966–1970	Gordon Burris
1971–1973	Jim Stephens
1974–1977	Larry Gross
1978–1995	Bruce Arena
1996–present	George Gelnovatch

• NCAA Division I tournament
  • Winners (7): 1989^{[n 1]}, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2009, 2014
  • Runners-up (2): 1997, 2019

• ACC tournament
  • Winners (11): 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2019
  • Runners-up (8): 1990, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2008, 2017
• ACC regular season
  • First Place (19): 1969, 1970, 1979, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2010, 2019
  • Runners-up (8): 1956, 1957, 1963, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2005, 2016
• Commonwealth Clash^[11]
  • Winners (31): 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019
  • Runners-up (2): 2004, 2005
• Virginia Intercollegiate Soccer Association tournament
  • Winners (9): 1961, 1962, 1963, 1970, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1984
  • Runners-up (3): 1964, 1967, 1971

Notes

Source: ^[12]

General

• NCAA results and statistics sourced to: "NCAA Tournament Results & Awards". University of Virginia. Retrieved August 18, 2011.
• ACC tournament results and statistics sourced to: "UVa in the ACC Tournament". Atlantic Coast Conference. University of Virginia. Retrieved August 20, 2011.

Citations

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Virginia Cavaliers men's soccer.

• Official website