Once again, the NCAA quarterfinals became the graveyard of another talented Virginia men's soccer team.
The Cavaliers threw away their national title hopes in a frustrating 3-0 defeat to Creighton Saturday. Virginia has now been eliminated in the NCAA round of eight for three straight seasons. Last year, UCLA ousted the Cavaliers. In 1998, Stanford did the same.
The Blue Jays (21-3) have won all three of their tournament games, despite entering as the underdog in each one. They now move on to face Indiana, which has won two straight championships, in the semifinals Friday at 5 p.m. at Ericsson Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.
Virginia (17-6-1) began the cold afternoon at Klöckner Stadium under worrisome conditions. After spraining his left knee in a 2-1 second round victory over St. John's, All-ACC midfielder Kyle Martino could not play against the Blue Jays and left the Cavaliers with a lack of midfield leadership that plagued them throughout the match.
However, Virginia almost captured the lead in the game's opening moments. In the second minute, forward Ryan Gibbs fed a dangerous through ball to Alecko Eskandarian. Eskandarian's shot flew just wide, and a minute later, Blue Jay keeper Mike Gabb made a diving save on a shot by midfielder Steve Totten.
The close calls made Martino's absence conspicuous from the very beginning.
"We just couldn't connect and keep the ball," Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. "Part of it's because [Creighton's] a good team, and part of it's because Kyle Martino isn't in there."
The Blue Jays struck gold a few minutes later and shifted the momentum dramatically. Creighton's Corey Fox sent a pass to Brian Mullan on the left side of the Cavalier penalty box. Mullan hit the right side netting with a shot to give the Jays a 1-0 lead.
Gelnovatch tried to give Virginia more possessions by switching Eskandarian, one of the team's top ball handlers, to midfield and letting speedy junior Sheldon Barnes take over at forward. But Creighton was not fazed. In the 56th minute, Mike Tranchilla pushed the lead to 2-0 with a blistering shot that sailed past Virginia keeper David Comfort into the upper right corner of the goal.
The last 20 minutes of the match resembled a shooting gallery. The Creighton defense sat back and withstood everything that the desperate Cavaliers could muster. Gabb and his backline stood strong, and Mullan scored his second goal with just 47 seconds left.
The second half statistics told of the relentlessness of the Virginia attack. Virginia led 14-5 in shots and 8-1 in corner kicks, yet again, could only ponder the reasons for another quarterfinal defeat.
"It definitely hurts," Totten said. "Coming here you expect to be in the Final Four pretty much every year you play, and we keep losing in this round"
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