Tuesday night in Durham, North Carolina, the No. 23 Virginia men’s soccer team played ACC-rival Duke to a scoreless draw. Graduate student goalkeeper Alex Long and the Blue Devil defense recorded the first shutout of Virginia since Sept. 6, ending the Cavaliers’ streak of games with two or more goals at seven.
Virginia (6-3-2, 2-2-2 ACC), which jumped back into the NSCAA Coaches Poll earlier Tuesday after weeks outside the top-25, extended its unbeaten streak to seven games, but failed to record a victory against the conference’s 11th-ranked team. Duke (4-4-4, 0-3-3 ACC) also fought to a tie against No. 12 North Carolina Friday night in Chapel Hill, but entered the game against Virginia winless in conference play.
The Cavaliers entered the game ninth in the nation and first in the ACC averaging 2.4 goals per game, but were stymied by Long, whose 11 saves brought his total to 55 on the year. Virginia redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Jeff Gal recorded three saves to maintain his end of a clean sheet. The Virginia defense limited Duke to just nine shots, compared to the Cavaliers’ 22.
Virginia’s three leading goal-scorers — junior midfielder Eric Bird, freshman forward Riggs Lennon and sophomore forward Darius Madison — combined for 14 shots, including seven on goal. Coach George Gelnovatch used 15 players after inserting a season-high 22 in Friday’s 5-0 ACC-win against Pittsburgh.
Gal, sophomore midfielder Todd Wharton and freshman midfielder Jordan Allen started for the 11th time in 11 games and played every minute. Senior defender Kevin McBride, junior defender Matt Brown, freshman midfielder Patrick Foss and Bird also stayed in from start to finish.
Virginia plays No. 5 Maryland for the 75th time in program history Friday at Klöckner Stadium. The match against the Terrapins will be the final regular-season conference match between the two teams. Maryland joins the Big Ten in 2014.
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