White: Ownby's Gem Lifts 'Hoos in OT
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com Release: 12/11/2009
By Jeff White

CARY, N.C. -- Pain is Brian Ownby's constant companion on the soccer field. The UVa sophomore will have surgery Dec. 19 to repair a double sports hernia, and he's limited to about 25 minutes per game.
Ownby needed only a fraction of that Friday night to send Virginia into the NCAA final.
He checked into UVa's semifinal against Wake Forest with 4:12 left in the second half and the score 1-1. Two minutes and 44 seconds into the first overtime, Ownby ended the suspense on a frigid night.
With a sellout crowd at WakeMed Soccer Park looking on, Ownby ran down a long pass from senior Jonathan Villaneuva and lifted the ball over keeper Akira Fitzgerald, who was charging at him, and into the net.
"I think we underestimated a little of Ownby's speed, and he kind of got a head jump on it," Wake defender Anthony Arena said.
Ownby's goal, his first since Oct. 25, gave the Cavaliers a 2-1 victory and earned them a spot on the college game's biggest stage. UVa (18-3-3) will meet Akron (24-0) for the NCAA title at 1 p.m. Sunday.
"I saw that there was a big gap between the defense and the goalie," Ownby said, "so I told [Villanueva] to hit one over the top, and he hit it perfectly, and I just took a touch and lobbed it over the keeper."
Villanueva was also credited with an assist on UVa's first goal, but that was actually a shot that was stopped and then rebounded out to sophomore Tony Tchani.
This time, Villanueva said, he saw Ownby ahead and "basically just kicked it as hard as I could and as far as I could. I knew that he's faster than anyone else I know, so I figured he'd catch up to it wherever it went."
So, how fast is the 6-0, 160-pound Ownby, a member of the U.S. under-20 team?
"He's ridiculous," UVa coach George Gelnovatch said.
"He's unbelievable," Virginia goalkeeper Diego Restrepo said.
Ownby's gem moved UVa (18-3-3) to the brink of its sixth NCAA title in men's soccer. The Cavaliers are back in the championship game for the first time since 1997, Gelnovatch's second season as head coach.
"This is what I came to Virginia for," said Restrepo, a transfer from the University of South Florida. "I'm just grateful [Gelnovatch] gave me an opportunity to come here."
Wake closed with a 17-4-3 record. The Demon Deacons played UVa thrice, and they went home unhappy each time.
Virginia beat Wake 1-0 during the regular season. Their second meeting, in the ACC tournament semifinals, was officially a tie, but the Wahoos advanced on penalty kicks.
The Deacons dominated the first 25 minutes Friday night but, despite several good chances, failed to convert against a UVa team that had shut out its previous 11 opponents.
"The first two times we played them, it did not look like that," Gelnovatch said. "I think they put us on our heels [Friday night]."
In the 17th minute, Wake's Andy Lubahn blasted a shot that the hit the crossbar and bounced back into the field. Teammate Zack Schilawski was there for a header, but it sailed over the goal, allowing the 'Hoos to exhale.
"I think they were sharp to start the game, very sharp, as sharp as I have seen them," Gelnovatch said. "But I do think as the half went on, later in the half, we kind of found ourselves a little bit. They really came after us, and in the previous two games they didn't come after us like that. It caught us off guard a little bit. I think their mentality was to try to get a goal, a quick goal, and thankfully it didn't happen."
After a scoreless first half, Virginia broke through in the 55th minute. Tchani, who earlier in the day had been named a first-team All-American, one-timed the rebound from about 10 yards out after Fitzgerald blocked Villenueva's shot.
UVa hadn't allowed a goal since Oct. 17, so that 1-0 lead looked commanding.
Alas, the Cavaliers showed they're not impenetrable. In the 70th minute, Corben Bone's shot from along the end line bounced off UVa defender Mike Volk and past Restrepo. And so UVa's -- and Restrepo's -- scoreless streak ended at 1,176 minutes and 51 seconds.
"For one second I thought I was in the middle of the desert," Restrepo said. "I was lost for one second, because I couldn't remember the last time I got scored on. But we just came together as a team and told each other to relax and start playing offense again."
Villanueva said: "It's kind of a new feeling for us, obviously, but the team definitely rallied around it, and we knew eventually we were going to get another chance."
Gelnovatch didn't have a chance to address his team after Wake's goal, but he'd discussed different scenarios with his players last weekend following Virginia's 3-0 win over defending NCAA champion Maryland 3-0 in the quarterfinals.
"I said, 'What are we going to do if we're winning 2-0 and they score? What are we going to do if it's 0-0 and they score?'" Gelnovatch recalled.
He got an answer from senior Neil Barlow, who'd been a reserve on the UVa team that lost to UCLA in the NCAA semifinals in 2006.
"The first thing he said was, 'We're going to get the ball out of the net, we're going to put it at the center circle, and we're going to get on with it,'" Gelnovatch said. "And that's what they did tonight."
After the second half ended, the teams had five minutes to ready themselves for overtime. Gelnovatch liked his players' demeanor and the resolve he saw in them.
"Right from the start, even though it didn't last long, right from the kickoff, it felt like we believed we were going to win that game," Gelnovatch said. "Whether it was overtime or it was PKs, it didn't matter, and that's who we've been all season."
Ownby, who missed six games early in the season while competing in the under-20 World Cup, was diagnosed with a sports hernia after returning from Egypt.
"I have it supposedly on both sides," he said. "I feel it more on my left. It starts from a groin injury, and after you keep playing, it eventually [leads to] tendons rubbing up against your pelvis."
Ownby was ready to enter the game with about 12 minutes left in the second half Friday night. Eight minutes passed, however, before there was a break for substitutions.
Against Maryland, UVa had the game in hand midway through the second half, so Gelnovatch kept Ownby on the bench as a precaution.
"Didn't need him," Gelnovatch said.
The Cavaliers needed Ownby against Wake, and they're likely to need him Sunday against the Zips. After 110 scoreless minutes, Akron beat North Carolina on penalty kicks, 5-4, in the second semifinal Friday night.
"He's got another 30 minutes in him for the championship game," Gelnovatch said of Ownby. "I think we've managed him as well as you can manage [a player with that injury]. Our sports medicine people, our doctors, our coaching staff. It doesn't get any better than that."
 

Ownby’s Golden Goal Sends Cavaliers into NCAA Final
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com Release: 12/11/2009

CARY, N.C. – Brian Ownby’s (Glen Allen, Va.) golden goal in the 93rd minute lifted the No. 2 Virginia men’s soccer team to a 2-1 overtime victory over No. 3 Wake Forest in the first semifinal of the 2009 College Cup at the WakeMed Soccer Park. The victory sent the Cavaliers (18-3-3) into their first national championship final since 1997, as they look for their first national title since 1994.

“Obviously we’re ecstatic to be playing for a national championship with this win,” said Virginia head coach George Gelnovatch. “Wake Forest is an excellent team. I thought the game had its moments both ways. I thought our demeanor and our resolve to start the overtime right from the start, right from the kickoff, I thought we were going to win that game. Whether it was overtime, whether it was PKs, it didn’t matter. That’s how we’ve been all season.”

Early in the game, Wake Forest (17-4-3) had the better of the play and the possession. The Demon Deacons had the game’s first scoring chance in the 12th minute as Andy Lubahn’s shot fired off the crossbar and Zack Schilawski’s rebound header went wide. After the slow start, the Cavaliers had the better of the chances late in the first half as each team had seven shots in a scoreless opening 45 minutes.

“The first two times we played them it did not look like that,” said Gelnovatch. “I thought they were sharp to start the game – very sharp, as sharp as I have seen them. But I do think as the half went on, later in the half, we found ourselves.”

Early in the second half, the Cavaliers took advantage of one of their chances and took a 1-0 lead in the 55th minute. Jonathan Villanueva’s (Grand Prairie, Texas) shot from the top of the penalty area was saved by the goalkeeper, but the rebound came right to Tony Tchani (Norfolk, Va.), who one-timed in his eighth goal of the season from 10 yards out. Wake Forest drew even in the 70th minute as Corben Bone dribbled down the end line and knocked in a shot from a bad angle for the equalizer. The goal snapped the Cavalier goalkeeper Diego Restrepo’s (West Palm Beach, Fla.) school-record shutout streak at 1176:51, having not allowed a goal since the Virginia Tech game on Oct. 17. The teams remained tied at 1-1 at the end of regulation.

In overtime, Ownby delivered the goal that sent the Cavaliers into the championship game in the 93rd minute. Villanueva lifted a ball over top of the defense from midfield that found the run of Ownby, who chipped a shot from 20 yards out over the charging goalkeeper for his third goal of the season. For Ownby, it was his first goal since Oct. 25, as he has missed considerable time this season due to injury and international duty with the U-20 National Team.

“We won the ball and Johnny (Villanueva) had it,” said Ownby. “I saw there was a big gap between the defense and the goal. I told him to hit one over the top. He hit it perfectly, I just took a touch and lobbed it over the keeper. I saw I was behind the player so I ran past him. I just got there first and put it in the net.”

The victory was Virginia’s first overtime win in the NCAA Tournament since a 2-1 win in three overtimes over Princeton in the 1999 first round.

Overall, Virginia outshot Wake 17-14, while the Deacons had a 3-1 corner kick edge. Restrepo made one save in net for the Cavaliers, while Akira Fitzgerald made five saves for Wake Forest.

The Cavaliers will play either No. 1 Akron or No. 5 North Carolina for the championship on Sunday. Game time at WakeMed Soccer Park is 1 p.m. ET and the game will be televised live nationally on ESPN2.

VIRGINIA 2, WAKE FOREST 1 (OT)

Virginia (18-3-3) 0 1 1 - 2
Wake Forest (17-4-3) 0 1 0 - 1

Scoring Summary
UVa. Tony Tchani 8 (Jonathan Villanueva 1) 55’
WF. Corben Bone 3 (unassisted) 70’
UVa. Brian Ownby 3 (Jonathan Villanueva 2) 93’

Shots: UVa 17, Wake 14
Corners: UVa 1, Wake 3
Saves: UVa 1 (Restrepo 1), Wake 5 (Fitzgerald 5)
Fouls: UVa 14, Wake 10

Weather: 35 degrees, clear
 

Wrapping up College Cup soccer
Michael Phillips
Dec 11, 2009

CARY, N.C. – Doctors have told Brian Ownby he can’t play more than a half hour of soccer. Last night, he made that time count.

The Deep Run grad scored the game-winning goal in overtime for a 2-1 victory against Wake Forest that will send Virginia to the College Cup finals for the first time in more than a decade.

Earlier this year, Ownby was on track for a stellar sophomore season. He started it by playing for the United States in the U20 World Cup in Egypt. But he was bothered by a nagging groin injury.

After a cross-country flight back home, he played all 110 minutes of a two-OT game against Liberty. At that point, he knew something was wrong. The diagnosis was a sports hernia.

Ownby will have to have surgery next week when the season is over. But he’s done his best to contribute, working out on an underwater treadmill and warming up with the team each day – even though he’s limited as far as actual practicing.

He’s worked his way back to where he can play as much as 30 minutes of soccer, and his coach, George Gelnovatch, saves him for crucial moments.

With last night’s College Cup semifinal headed to overtime, he gave Ownby the nod with five minutes left. Ownby started running in the freezing-cold weather to warm up. He was going to replace Jonathan Villanueva, but before he entered, Gelnovatch reconsidered – a fortuitious move.

Two minutes into overtime, Villanueva kicked a high, arcing pass in Ownby’s direction.

“I basically just kicked it as hard as I could,” Villanueva said. “He’s as fast as anybody I know.”

Sure enough, Ownby got to the ball, and tapped a soft shot right over the goalkeeper’s head for the victory.

The goal was enough to overshadow the game’s top storyline to that point – U.Va. finally allowing a goal.

Cavs keeper Diego Restrepo set a school record by going 1,176 minutes, 51 seconds between goals allowed.

The streak finally broke with Virginia protecting a 1-0 lead in the second half. Wake Forest’s Corben Bone dribbled the ball down the end line, carefully keeping it in, then unleashing a shot that went off defender Mike Volk before bouncing in. The goaltender had a message for his team afterward – he felt the Cavs were playing it too safe with the lead.

“Too much defense,” he said. “We need to start playing offense.”

That Virginia had a 1-0 lead to protect was the result of a little luck in the first half. The Demon Deacons came out firing and dominated the first 20 minutes of play.

“The first two times we played them, it did not look like that,” Gelnovatch said. “They caught us off guard a little bit. I think their mentality was to try to get a quick goal.”

After maintaining control of the game, the Cavs notched the game’s first goal 10 minutes into the second half, when Villanueva unleashed a rocket of a shot that deflected right to Tony Tchani. Tchani put in the rebound, capping off a strong day for him – he was named a first-team All-American earlier in the afternoon.

The Cavs will practice today as they prepare to take on either undefeated Akron or ACC rival North Carolina in the championship match tomorrow. That game will take place Sunday at 1 p.m., and will be televised on ESPN2.

If it’s close in the final minutes, Bates will fight off his injury one last time, and give the team a few minutes off the bench.

As he demonstrated last night, that’s all he needs.

Cavaliers in NCAA final
Virginia increases its win streak to 15 games after disposing of ACC rival Wake Forest in overtime.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

CARY, N.C. -- Virginia men's soccer coach George Gelnovatch felt that Brian Ownby had a good 25 minutes in him Friday night, 27 at the max.

Heck, Ownby barely needed seven minutes.

Ownby, who will undergo surgery next Friday for a sports hernia, came off the bench in the 86th minute and scored the winning goal as UVa advanced to the NCAA championship game with a 2-1 overtime victory over Wake Forest in the College Cup.

"I supposedly have [the injury] on both sides," said Ownby. "My injury was unlucky, but our team's doing well."

The Cavaliers (18-3-3) will meet Akron for the championship Sunday at WakeMed Soccer Park.

Virginia entered Friday's play with a 14-game winning streak and had shut out its previous 11 opponents, which was a good omen when All-America midfielder Tony Tchani knocked in a rebound in the 55th minute.

UVa's 1-0 lead was relatively short-lived, however, as Wake Forest midfielder Corben Bone scored a goal on a ball that deflected off Cavaliers defender Mike Volk in the 70th minute.

"I didn't know how to feel," said UVa goalie Diego Restrepo, who hadn't allowed a goal in nearly 1,200 minutes. "I felt like I was in the desert by myself. I could barely remember the last time we got scored on."

It was the first time in three games this season that Wake Forest (17-4-3) had scored on Virginia.

The Cavaliers beat then-No. 1 Wake 1-0 in September in Winston-Salem, N.C. ; then, in the ACC tournament at WakeMed Soccer Park, UVa won on penalty kicks after 110 minutes produced a scoreless tie in the semifinals.

Restrepo had extra incentive because the Deacons' first-year goalkeeper coach, Bo Oshoniyi, coached the goalies at South Florida when Restrepo lost his starting job at USF in 2008.

Jeff Attinella, Restrepo's one-time back-up at South Florida, was named first-team All-American on Friday.

Wake Forest controlled the early action, but Restrepo was forced to make only one save all night, compared to the five saves posted by the Deacons' Akira Fitzgerald.

On UVa's first goal, Fitzgerald stopped Jonathan Villanueva's initial effort but was unable to control the rebound. Tchani, a sophomore from Norfolk, Va., was in perfect position to notch his eighth goal of the season.

Villanueva, a senior midfielder without an assist in UVa's first 23 games, also delivered the pass on Ownby's winning goal.

Villanueva won a ball in the Cavaliers' end and "I told him to hit one over the top," said Ownby, who was 35 or 40 yards upfield. "He hit it perfectly, I just took a touch and lobbed it over the keeper."

Said Villanueva: "I basically kicked it as hard as I can and as far as I can. I knew he's faster than anybody else that I know, so I figured he'd catch up to it wherever it went."

Ownby was behind two Wake defenders but beat them to the ball.

"Me, personally, I think we underestimated a little bit of Ownby's speed," Wake freshman Anthony Arena said.

Who could blame him? Ownby first got up to go in the game at the 78-minute mark but a substitution opportunity did not arise until nearly eight minutes later.

All he could do in the 30-degree weather was run in place.

In Virginia's 3-0 victory over Maryland in last week's quarterfinals, Owenby would have been available for a late substitution but the Cavaliers didn't need him. The injury, combined with an early-season stint with the Under-20 U.S. National game, has limited him to 13 games.

"I jog on our treadmills to keep in shape," he said, "but it's not like a real game situation. When I get the chance, I try to give it all 100 percent."

Cavs reach final
BY BRIAN CONLIN - Staff Writer
Tags: soccer | sports | wake forest | ncaa | college cup

CARY -- Virginia knew that it could get about 27 minutes out of forward Brian Ownby because of his sports hernia. Ownby made the most of the little time he had.

Two minutes and 44 seconds into overtime Ownby took Jonathan Villanueva's pass from midfield and chipped it over the head of Wake Forest goalkeeper Akira Fitzgerald for the golden goal to give the Cavaliers a 2-1 NCAA Tournament semifinal win.

"We run on underwater treadmills to keep in shape, but it's kind of hard because it's not a real game situation," says Ownby, who will have surgery to repair the injury next Friday. "If I get a chance, I'm just going to try to give it 100 percent."

Virginia (18-3-3) will play for its sixth national title when it takes on Akron in the College Cup final at 1 p.m. Sunday at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary. The Cavaliers have made it to the final 10 times.

"Right from the kickoff [of overtime], I thought that we believed we were going to win that game," Virginia head coach George Gelnovatch says. "That's how we've been all season."

Virginia started the scoring in the 55th minute, when Villanueva, a senior, fired a shot to the left of Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald made a diving save but couldn't corral the ball. The rebound deflected out to Cavaliers All-America Tony Tchani who knocked the ball into the back of the net for his eighth goal of the season.

"I had a little bit of space and tried to hit it on target," Villanueva says. "Akira made a good save. He pushed it to the side, but Tony happened to be there thankfully and put it away for us."

Until then, Wake Forest had been controlling the game.

"The momentum was Wake Forest's most of the time," Wake Forest head coach Jay Vidovich says. "I thought we owned the game."

Virginia came into the game having not allowed a goal since two weeks before Halloween and survived several scares.

In the 12th minute, freshman forward Andy Lubahn fired a shot off the cross bar. Wake Forest senior Zack Schilawski got the rebound, but his shot went wide left.

Twenty-two minutes into the second half, Wake Forest senior Austin da Luz fired a shot from the top of the box that skimmed the crossbar.

"We created quality chances," Vidovich says. "We didn't put them away. That's nature. That's where you get punished."

After missing so many chances, Wake Forest (17-4-3) finally broke through in the 70th minute.

Wake Forest midfielder Corben Bone took the ball down the far side and took a shot that deflected off Restrepo's hand and into the net.

The goal, Bone's third of the season, was the first time Wake Forest has scored against Virginia in three meetings this season. It ended Virginia's scoreless streak at 1,176 minutes and 51 seconds.

"It was kind of a weird feeling for us," Villanueva says. "But we knew that eventually we would get another chance, and we would have to put it away."

Cavs win in sudden-death stunner
Media General News Service
Published: December 12, 2009
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CARY, N.C. — It was over in a blink of an eye.

That was the feeling for the Wake Forest soccer team after substitute Brian Ownby’s golden goal lifted Virginia to a 2-1 victory over the Demon Deacons on Friday in the College Cup semifinals at WakeMed Soccer Park.

After battling back from a 1-0 deficit to tie the game on Corben Bone’s goal in the 70th minute, the Deacons seemingly had the momentum. But the Cavaliers broke down the Deacons defense in the third minute of overtime when Jonathan Villanueva lofted a pass just over Wake defenders Ike Opara and Anthony Arena, and Ownby tracked it down and chipped it over goalie Akira Fitzgerald.

Ownby’s goal sent the Cavaliers (18-3-3) into Sunday’s College Cup final against Akron, which beat North Carolina 5-4 in penalties.

“Looking back at it, I don’t remember the play developing too much,” Arena said. “One of the midfielders just got a ball and we know they like to hit the ball over the top and run under it. I think, me personally, I underestimated Ownby’s speed and he got a head start on it and I got behind.”

Ownby, who is suffering from a sports hernia and was limited in his minutes, said: “I saw I was behind the player so I ran past him. He ran backwards toward the goal and I just got there first and put it in the net.”

On the initial pass from midfield from Villanueva, Fitzgerald got caught in no-man’s land and drifted too far out of the goal.

“The guy hit a pretty good ball between and I got caught out and he put it where he needed to put it,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s the way it goes sometimes; it’s tough to shallow and you don’t expect to end like that when you’ve had an unbelievable season like we’ve had.”

Wake Forest coach Jay Vidovich had his fourth straight team in a College Cup, and they had their chances. Austin da Luz had a 25-yard shot that just grazed the top of the crossbar in the second half, and Andy Lubahn had a clear shot that went right off the crossbar in the first half.

“I thought the momentum was Wake Forest’s most of the time,” Vidovich said. “I thought we owned the game. These stats are a little crazy, but when you look at the quality opportunities and the quality chances it was clearly Wake Forest.

“I think we created quality chances, but we didn’t put them away. And that’s when you are punished.”

It looked like the Deacons (17-4-3) were going to lose in regulation after the Cavs scored in the 55th minute on a rebound shot from Tony Tchani. Fitzgerald made a terrific save on a shot by Villanueva, but on the rebound, Tchani was there to score easily for a 1-0 lead.

The Cavs, who hadn’t given up a goal in their last 11 matches, were in good shape. However, Bone had other ideas after chasing down a ball on the left wing. He got behind the defense and poked a ball in from the side that deflected off UVa defender Mike Volk and past goalie Diego Restrepo.

Coach George Gelnovatch, who is in his 14th season with the Cavs, said that early on the Deacons were attacking a lot more than in their first two previous meetings. The Cavs won 1-0 in Winston-Salem, N.C., in the regular season, then won on penalty kicks in the ACC semifinals.

However, the Deacons couldn’t get that early goal.

“They are a team that defends well as a group,” Vidovich said about the Cavs. “And they play off of mistakes. Their first goal came off a broken play, the ball slipped through; the keeper saves it, knocks it down and it goes in so they were in the right place.

“Second goal, same thing, it wasn’t constructed and it was a ball knocked over the top and it’s something our guys were warned about and knew about.”

After playing 90 minutes to a 1-1 tie, many were expecting another 20 minutes of overtime, but it ended quickly.

Opera, the defensive player of the year in the ACC, said: “All game we talked about not getting beat by the long ball, but the forward, Ownby, made a good run behind me and Anthony was on the wrong side, and the next thing you know, the ball was in the net.”

Arena, a freshman playing in his first College Cup, said he was disappointed in the outcome.

“We couldn’t ask for anything better, first year and the College Cup,” Arena said. “It’s kind of frustrating, especially for the senior class. We might not ever get here again, so it would have been nice to go all the way. I still have three more years, but I know for our freshmen class, our sophomores and all the way up to our seniors, it sucks to go out this way.”
 

White: 'Hoos Closing in on Elusive Goal
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 12/11/2009
By Jeff White

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Every time he walks down the hall outside the men's soccer locker room at University Hall, senior Neil Barlow sees the UVa men's lacrosse team celebrating the NCAA title it won in 2006.

The unbridled joy of Dom Starsia's players is impossible to miss in the gigantic photo mounted on the wall alongside similar shots of other national champions from UVa. That's a feeling Barlow and his teammates crave, and they hope to experience it Sunday afternoon in Cary, N.C., site of the College Cup.

"We want to get our pictures up on the wall at U-Hall," said Barlow, the third-leading scorer for Virginia (17-3-3), which meets ACC rival Wake Forest (17-3-3) in an NCAA semifinal Friday at 5 p.m.

"We see lacrosse's [2006] national championship picture, and all of us just strive for that. We want to be part of something special and go down in history, especially at a school like this that has such a rich history."

UVa has won five NCAA titles in men's soccer, all under Bruce Arena, George Gelnovatch's predecessor as coach. But the Wahoos haven't won the national championship since 1994, a date of which Gelnovatch's players are aware.

At the start of the NCAA tournament last month, junior forward Chase Neinken wrote this on the chalkboard in UVa's locker room:

15 years

"And that's just been driving us," Barlow said. "When you see us in our little huddles before the games, we constantly talk about adding [another NCAA title]."

This is Virginia's third trip to the College Cup under Gelnovatch, a former UVa All-American and assistant coach who succeeded his mentor, Arena, in January 1996.

Each of the first two appearances ended with a loss to UCLA. The Bruins beat the 'Hoos 2-0 in the 1997 championship game and 4-0 in the 2006 semifinals.

"In 2006, I think we were just so excited to be at the College Cup," said Barlow, a seldom-used freshman on that team. "We'd never really wrapped our head around being national champions.

"But now, George has kept us strictly focused on, yes, we got to the College Cup, and that's a huge achievement, but it doesn't stop now. We still have two more games to win to get our end goal.

"Even in our locker room, we have a big pyramid sitting there with a top goal saying 'National Championship.' Getting to the College Cup is great, but with a team like this, we should definitely get there and even go further than that."

UVa clinched a spot in the College Cup by blanking defending NCAA champion Maryland 3-0 last Friday in a quarterfinal at Klöckner Stadium.

The team met the next day to train, Gelnovatch recalled, and "the thing we said to the guys was, 'That game Friday night was not our national championship. We enjoyed it last night, it was terrific, great crowd, and it was really fun, all that stuff. But starting today and moving forward, let's remember that was not our national championship game. And the team that's going to win this thing is the team dialed in, totally all in, not getting distracted, not just happy to be there.'"

When he looks back at 2006, Gelnovatch said, "I feel like we probably could have been a little bit more dialed in and focused on what we were doing there. Not that we came in unprepared or unfocused or anything like that. But there were a couple things I learned, and moving forward we'll do things a little differently."

In their Sept. 18 regular-season matchup, the 'Hoos beat the Demon Deacons 1-0 in Winston-Salem, N.C. They met again in the ACC tournament, and Virginia again prevailed, winning on penalty kicks to advance to the championship game.

"It's always fun to play them," Barlow said. "It's always a good game, it's always tight."

This is the fourth straight trip to the College Cup for Wake, whose stars include senior Austin da Luz and junior Corben Bone.

"We know exactly what to expect out of Wake," Barlow said. "It's going to come down to closing down [da Luz and Bone]. If we close those players down, we can do well in the game."

The Wahoos have closed down every opponent they've faced since Oct. 17, when they allowed a goal in a win over Virginia Tech. With 11 straight shutouts, UVa has tied the NCAA record.

Junior keeper Diego Restrepo has not allowed a goal in 1,107 minutes and 34 seconds.

The Cavaliers don't want that scoreless streak to end, of course, but they realize it could happen in Cary. That doesn't have to result in a UVa defeat.

"We've talked about that a little bit as a team," Barlow said. "I'm not exactly sure how we're going to react, but I feel like it might almost anger us to a point where it might drive us to play even better.

"Because we're all a part of that shutout streak. We want Diego to go down in NCAA history for that. It might infuriate us, spark us up to play even better."

Unbeaten Akron and North Carolina meet in the 7:30 p.m. semifinal Friday. The NCAA championship game is Sunday at 1 p.m., also at WakeMed Soccer Park.


 

Division I-AA salaries rising but don’t come close to I-A
Richmond will be “aggressive,” AD days
By Doug Doughty

This column doesn’t normally stray outside the Division I-A/FBS (gee, I have a hard time saying that) realm, but I was struck by Jim Miller’s passion during a phone interview with the Richmond athletic director this week.

Head coaches may have left the Spiders’ program, but the commitment remains.

What else would you expect him to say? However, it was the tone of Miller’s voice that caught me.

When Virginia introduced Mike London as its new football coach Monday, Miller was in the position of looking for a coach for the second time in three years.

After taking the Spiders to the FBS semifinals in 2007, then-head coach Dave Clawson resigned to take a position as the offensive coordinator at Tennessee. He was swept up in the dismissal of Volunteers’ head coach, Philip Fulmer, after the 2008 season but surfaced as the head coach at Bowling Green.

(The man who Clawson replaced as the head coach at Bowling Green was none other than Gregg Brandon, who finds himself looking for a job again this year after a one-season stint as the offensive coordinator at UVa).

London was making in the neighborhood of $300,000 per year at Richmond, where his contract was extended through 2014 last summer. At Virginia, he signed a five-year pact worth $1.7 million per year.

(I’ve heard Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring mentioned as a possible Richmond target, but Stinespring makes as reported $275,000 per year. The Spiders could afford to give him a bump, but probably not a huge one).

Richmond defensive coordinator Vic Shealy, a UR alumnus and son of former Spiders’ head coach Dal Shealy, probably ranks as the candidate to beat.

Given the disparity in head-coaching salaries, there was no way that Richmond was going to keep London, whether he went to Virginia or any other FBS school. Still, Miller wants it known that the Spiders won’t be low-balling anybody, at least not by Football Championship Subdivision (Division I-AA) standards.

“At the time we hired him, Mike might have been the highest-compensated coach in FCS football,” Miller said. “There’s two other teams in our league that are very aggressive with their pay and, because of our hire, they raised salaries to meet what Mike was making.”

(Best bet on the two other teams: Delaware and James Madison).

“We were very aggressive in hiring him because of where we were,” Miller said. “Remember, we were pretty good before Mike got here. We lost in the [2007] semifinals. We were a good team and we knew we were poised to do something. We thought Mike was a perfect fit.

“And, the fact that he left for Virginia does not change that opinion. I still say Mike was a great fit. He enabled us to get in homes to recruit kids that we probably never would have.”

Miller said it was not his place to say whether London was a perfect fit for UVa “but, based on what Craig [Littlepage] described as what Virginia is looking for, I’d have to say he is a great hire,” he continued.

“I’d say that’s something that the Virginia folks would have to decide for themselves, but he certainly fit the description that Craig put forward in his introductory remarks.”

NOTE: I'm headed for the College Cup men’s soccer semifinals. Sorry for the abbreviated College Notebook. Keep checking the UVa and VT Insider blogs on roanoke.com for periodic reports.