Road to Germantown: Men’s ACC championship preview
The 2012 men’s soccer ACC Championship at the Maryland SoccerPlex kicks off Friday at 5:30 p.m. when the dark horse Virginia Cavaliers (9-6-3) challenge the defending national champion North Carolina Tar Heels (15-2-1). Immediately following at 8 p.m. will see No. 2 ranked Maryland Terrapins (15-1-2) facing the Clemson Tigers (6-8-5) in the night cap. The winners play Sunday at noon back at SoccerPlex Stadium, where the 2012 Road to Germantown ends with a guaranteed beginning for the winner in the NCAA Tournament.
Soccerwire.com blogger Quinn Casteel has been following the ACC Men all season over on his “ACC Own The Pitch” blog, and has previews of both semifinal match ups. Organizers at the Maryland SoccerPlex urge fans to order self-printable e-tickets online to avoid lines at the box office.
Semifinal #1: UNC v UVA @ 5:30 p.m. tonight
Virginia’s sub-par 3-4-1 conference record in the regular season landed them the sixth seed in the ACC Championship, but the Cavaliers overcame unlikely odds to beat No. 13 Wake Forest in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament on Tuesday in a wild 2-2 match eventually settled by penalty kicks. UVA and Wake Forest combined for 44 shots in the match with the Cavaliers’ 22 being a season high for the normally average offensive unit.
As expected, the No. 3 team in the country UNC defeated seventh-seeded Duke 1-0 in the Tar Heels’ first round match-up on Tuesday for the team’s 14th shutout of the season in only 18 total matches. The team’s four total goals allowed and .23 goals against average are both first in Division I college soccer.
[+ read Quinn Casteel’s full preview on ACC Own The Pitch]
Semifinal #2: UMD v Clemson @ 8 p.m. tonight
On Tuesday in the quarterfinals, the Terps beat ninth seeded Virginia Tech 2-1 at home and the Tigers beat Boston College in penalty kicks following a scoreless regulation and overtime. Clemson took the fourth seed away from the Eagles on the final day of the regular season, and it would end up proving pivotal as the Tigers were able to eek out a win on their home turf instead of having to do it in Boston.
Clemson is one of the hotter teams right now in the ACC, having not lost a conference match in over a month when the Tigers fell 2-0 to No. 3 North Carolina on Oct. 5. Austin Savage’s eight goals, good for sixth in the ACC, have paced Clemson to this point while Manolo Sanchez has posted a team-high five assists.
