On a chilly, damp night at Klöckner Stadium, Virginia (13-2) defeated Longwood University (1-13) in overtime on a golden goal by senior Matt Oliver.
In a game in which the Cavaliers had much more to lose than the Lancers, the defensive strategy employed by Longwood kept the Virginia offense in check for the full 90 minute regulation period.
The game was spent almost entirely on the Virginia side of the field with the Lancers only getting one shot, coming early in the second period. Virginia took 28 shots over the entire match, missing multiple opportunities in the first period to deal a crushing blow.
In a questionable move, Virginia coach George Gelnovatch held usual starters Adam Cristman and Nico Colaluca out of the starting line up, waiting until there were 30 minutes and 28 minutes remaining in the second period, respectively, to enter them into the game.
"I wanted to give them a run so they didn't get a whole day off," Gelnovatch said. "If we wanted to win, we had to put fresh attacking players in."
To give credit to Longwood's defense, the gutsy play of Lancer goalie Matt VanOekel kept the game deadlocked. VanOekel constantly made save after save, sacrificing his body to help his team, and in the process recorded eight saves.
The defensive strategy played by Longwood seemed to baffle even Gelnovatch.
"I've never seen a team, 20 minutes into the first half play a ball like it's the last 30 seconds of the game and to push the ball out of bounds." he said. "If that's their game plan, that's their game plan, but I've never seen a team do that."
In fact, it was rare to even see the ball cross the midfield line as it appeared the Lancers were playing for a tie as opposed to a win. If that was in fact the case, they came within 4:40 of achieving it. When senior defender Matt Oliver finally connected on a chip shot off of a cross into the box by Hunter Freeman, the crowd, and the entire Virginia team, let out a loud celebratory sigh of relief. Until the game winning shot was made, the most excitement had come when it was announced that the Boston Red Sox were beating the New York Yankees 6-0 in game seven of the ALCS. For the majority of the second half as well as the beginning of overtime, it looked as if that would be all the excitement seen on the night.
Yet Oliver, who played the whole game, decided to put an end to the charade. "I got a touch, I got a peek around my defender," Oliver said. "I got a step on him and then put my head down and hit it and hoped for the best."
The best was what he got and the result was the game winner.
"I don't think we ever got desperate," Oliver said. "I just think we decided to play a little more urgent and I don't think we ever panicked at any time which I thought was very good"
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