No. 18 West Virginia ended the Virginia men's soccer team's quest to make the NCAA College Cup for the second year running by defeating the Cavaliers 1-0 in the second round of NCAA tournament play last week.
Making its 27th-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, Virginia now holds the record for the longest active streak in the nation. After a season in which the Cavaliers failed to live up to poll expectations, No. 25 Virginia made a valiant last effort in the postseason but ultimately fell short.
"This season definitely had its ups and downs," senior midfielder Chris Tierney said. "We had a lot of good wins and good performances this year, but I think we paid the price when we played some more physical teams -- we didn't pick up on what we needed to do against them until maybe it was a little too late."
Despite a disappointing end to the season, this year's graduating class of Tierney, Zola Short, Jeremy Barlow, Dane Murphy, Will Hall, Kyle Rudzinski, Matt Ayotte, Yannick Reyering and Matt Williams will depart from U.Va. with some impressive accomplishments under its belt.
"This senior class should be remembered for winning an ACC Championship, advancing to a College Cup and setting new attendance records in college soccer," Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. "We will miss them."
The accolades of the graduating Cavaliers are even more noteworthy when one considers that this group of young men was not a highly ranked or anticipated recruiting class.
"We've proved that it is not all high-profile players coming into these colleges that are going to succeed," Tierney said. "It is recruiting players with the right attitude, players that work hard and players that maybe haven't had the same opportunities in high school that some others have."
An example of one such player is midfielder Barlow. Taking a chance on a young man who had never played on a national or regional team, Gelnovatch offered the Herndon, Va. native a Cavalier jersey. In his first year, Barlow was named the 2004 ACC Tournament MVP, and as he leaves college soccer, he has established himself as one of the best players in the country.
"I think our class is the perfect example of how taking chances on some guys really pays off," Tierney said. "This has been a great group of guys to go through four years with, and I think any of them would say the same thing."
Tierney also exemplifies the attributes Gelnovatch and the Virginia coaching staff seek out when recruiting. Last spring, when he made his mark as the Cavaliers' leading scorer, a tremendous amount of responsibility was thrust on his shoulders. With last year's graduation of Adam Cristman, Tierney set out to fill the gap in the offense and did just that, tallying seven goals, seven assists and 21 total points this season.
More importantly, however, Tierney became a team leader this season, particularly after a knee injury benched Reyering, the Cavaliers' leading scorer, for the remainder of the season.
"I wasn't thinking about how many goals or assists I had or any of that. but it was a good, rewarding year for me personally," Tierney said. "It was my last year, so I had to do everything I could to make sure I left the impression that I wanted to leave on the teammates who are going to keep playing, and I think I accomplished that"
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