WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.--Drew O'Donnell could have been dead for all we knew.
After 129 minutes of grueling soccer against the undisputed No. 1 team in the country, the lone fourth year on the Virginia men's soccer team laid motionless on the field, long after all his teammates had collected themselves and returned to the sideline.
His limp body rested next to the Cavalier goal posts, the same posts that grudgingly allowed the entry of Duke's winning shot moments before. O'Donnell was exhausted, emotionally and physically, after the triple-overtime Championship loss, but it was the questions in his head that prevented the Cavaliers' captain from rising from the turf.
Was it really true? Did we, seeded last in the tournament, just shock the Conference and the soccer world by knocking off the second and third seeds to earn a Championship bout with the top-ranked Blue Devils? Did we really battle undefeated Duke for over two hours and lose because of pure exhaustion?
And are we, despite a season that started off with such disappointment and frustration, still a contender for the National Championship, like every Virginia team before us has been?
There was a time in the early '90s when the rest of the ACC played only to compete for the second spot in the Conference.
This year that all changed.
After finishing dead last in the Conference and suffering their worst regular season since 1980, the Cavs became the laughingstock of the ACC, has-beens of a bygone era. The team lost not because it didn't have talent -- there were still more high school All-Americans on the Cavs than on all the team rosters of some small conferences -- but because there was a lack of leadership and experience.
On a team comprised mostly of first and second years, Virginia searched for guidance and direction from its older players, but, as evidenced by late losses to William & Mary, Clemson and N.C. State, it wasn't to be found.
Then, ACC Tournament time came around. Maybe the Cavs took a look at their 12 Conference Championship banners before the bus left for Winston-Salem. Maybe they opened up the cabinet that holds those five national trophies. Or maybe Ryan Trout and company were humiliated at being the No. 7 seed in a seven-team tournament.
Someone told this soccer team: "Hey, this is Virginia. We're better than this. Don't make this season a disgrace."
Boy, was the rest of the ACC surprised. Second-seeded Maryland wasn't expecting two goals by the previously dormant Virginia offense in the first 20 minutes of the first-round match. Third-seeded Wake Forest certainly didn't think that Trout, scoreless in ACC competition, would make swiss cheese out of the Deacon defense with two identical breakaway goals.
Beating top-seeded Duke would have been a storybook ending to the Cavaliers' improbable ACC run, but, inevitably, playing three games in four days wore down Virginia, and the rested Blue Devils won out.
Virginia, though, can take a lot out of last night's hard-fought loss. They've found their leaders in Trout, Sheldon Barnes and Marshall Leonard. They know -- with no reservations -- that they can play with any team they might draw in the NCAA Tournament.
And Drew O'Donnell has the answer to his most pressing question: Yes, nothing has changed. Virginia is a contender, once again.
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