The Virginia men's soccer team (1-0-1) could not have asked for a better early-season test than what it experienced Sunday at UC-Santa Barbara. The Cavaliers played the talented Santa Barbara squad to a 0-0, double-overtime tie in front of a crowd of 1,005 raucous and hostile Gauchos fans. The match-up was made even more challenging for Virginia by several questionable officiating calls, highlighted by the red card given to sophomore midfielder Nico Colaluca in the 80th minute of regulation. Virginia was forced to play the rest of the game one man down.
"Against Santa Barbara, we were faced with a very difficult environment in all aspects including the fans, the refereeing and the opponent," Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. "Those factors made it very difficult for us, and we dealt with it tremendously."
When pressed to comment further on the officiating, Gelnovatch responded cautiously.
"I'm prohibited from getting into too much detail," he said. "I don't agree with it, and that's basically where I'll leave it. The best way I can describe it is that the game was unique in that there were a lot of things against us that were out of our control."
Junior goalkeeper Ryan Burke saved Virginia from defeat five minutes into the first overtime period by blocking a penalty kick by Tyler Rosenlund. Burke played all 110 minutes of the game and recorded four saves.
"Burke is the best goalie in the country," junior midfielder Will Hall said. "He's kept us in games. With him behind us all year, we should be fine."
Two days before the contest against Santa Barbara, the Cavaliers easily dispatched a mediocre UC-Riverside squad, 2-0. Junior forward Adam Cristman notched his first goal of the season when he headed in a cross pass from sophomore midfielder Jeremy Barlow. Barlow later scored a goal of his own when senior midfielder Joe Vide set him up with a pass that left him with only the Riverside goalie to beat in a one-on-one situation. Barlow took advantage of this and gave Virginia a 2-0 lead with 18 minutes remaining in regulation.
"In the Riverside game, we played very well," Gelnovatch said. "We clearly deserved to win and probably should have scored another goal or two. We put forth a good and solid performance in that game."
Virginia's defense has been a question mark heading into the season, but Gelnovatch said he is thrilled with the quality of defensive play so far.
"All of preseason, we were talking about questions on defense," Gelnovatch said. "The defense is ahead of schedule in terms of where I thought we'd be at this point, particularly with the injuries to [Robby] Rogers and [Bakary] Soumare. Guys like Lee Sandwina and Matt Poole have stepped up as center-backs and done tremendously."
Gelnovatch said he also is satisfied with the progress of his offense. Despite being shut out against Santa Barbara, Gelnovatch said he saw excellent things offensively.
"We created some good chances to score," he said. "One shot hit the post, and their goalkeeper made a big-time save on another shot, so we're creating chances."
Tonight, Virginia plays its regular season home opener against UNC-Charlotte. The 49ers have struggled so far this season, losing 3-2 in overtime against Davidson and 4-0 to UNC-Greensboro. Despite Charlotte's poor start, Gelnovatch and the Cavaliers are not taking the 49ers lightly.
"Charlotte is 0-2, so I have a feeling they're going to come out here looking for a result that can put their season back on track," Gelnovatch said. "They've always been a good, solid and well-coached team. We expect it to be a tough game"
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