Deacons' soccer team will try to break through against Cavs

Credit: Journal File Photo

Austin da Luz of Wake Forest gets past Luis Serrano of UCLA.

By: By John Dell | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: December 10, 2009

Postseason matches against Virginia often end badly for the Wake Forest men's soccer team.

The Cavaliers have a 5-0-2 record against the Deacons in ACC Tournament and NCAA Tournament play since 2000, and one of the ties also went the Cavaliers' way -- they won a shootout to advance in last month's ACC Tournament after the teams played to a scoreless tie.

The only time that Wake Forest came out ahead was in 2006, when the Deacons advanced on penalty kicks after the teams played to a 1-1 tie in the ACC Tournament semifinals.

Wake Forest players and coaches say that past results don't matter. And with another match looming -- at 5 p.m. Friday in the College Cup semifinals in Cary -- the Deacons will have a chance to change the trend.

Justin Lichtfuss, a fifth-year senior, is upbeat about the Deacons' chances.

"I don't think it's mental, they just match up with us really well," Lichtfuss said. "It's a big rivalry, Wake Forest and UVa., so there are a lot of emotions in the game.

"It's always a big game."

The Deacons also lost to the Cavaliers 1-0 in a regular-season match at Spry Stadium in September.

Coach Jay Vidovich of Wake Forest doesn't like to talk about past matches against Virginia, so you won't catch him bemoaning the fact that the Cavaliers have given his teams fits.

He has a 4-19-4 career record against Virginia in 16 seasons, but his focus has been on Friday's semifinal and finding ways to crack a Virginia defense that has posted 11 straight shutouts and has allowed just seven goals all season.

Coach George Gelnovatch of Virginia said he doesn't change his approach for Wake Forest.

"I don't think there's anything we do in particular that's different against any other team," he said.

Senior Austin da Luz of Wake Forest acknowledges that both teams are very familiar with each other.

"It's always a tough game with them, and there's some bad blood, but we think this time we are going to try and forget the other games against them," da Luz said, "and just go into it as a tournament game, because if you lose you go home."

Wake Forest's senior class is 3-2-2 against Virginia, with all three wins in the regular season. What might be a bigger advantage for the Deacons is College Cup experience -- they'll be making their fourth straight appearance, and Virginia last advanced this far in 2006.

"The senior class has beaten Virginia three times, they've beaten us twice and we've gone to PKs two other times," Vidovich said. "They advanced once, and we've advanced once (on PKs), so really we've got a piece of them. But it's always a tight one and usually a one-goal affair.

"Right now they are a very good team."

jdell@wsjournal.com

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