Virginia Men’s Soccer travels to New Mexico Sunday for NCAA second round

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. –The Virginia men’s soccer team continues NCAA tournament play at 9 p.m. Sunday (ET) when it matches up with 13th-seeded New Mexico in a second-round match at the UNM Sports Complex. The Cavaliers enter play on a seven-match unbeaten streak following a 1-0 first-round win over Lafayette last Thursday, while New Mexico had a bye in the opening round.

Live Coverage
A free webcast will be available at VirginiaSports.com. Live statistics also can be found at VirginiaSports.com, and in-game updates are available through the UVa men’s soccer Twitter account (@UVAMenSoccer).

Records
Virginia: 10-6-2 (ACC: 3-4-1)
New Mexico: 16-3-1 (MPSF: 8-2-0)

Noting the NCAA Tournament
The winner of the UVa-UNM match will advance to the third round next Sunday (Nov. 25) to take on the winner of the Connecticut-Northeastern game.

Virginia in the NCAA Soccer Championship
Virginia is playing in its 32nd-consecutive NCAA tournament, dating to 1981 – the longest active streak in the nation. UVa has an all-time record of 53-27-4 in the NCAA tournament, including a 2-6 record in true road matches. The Cavaliers are playing their first true road game in the NCAA tournament since a 1-0 second-round loss at West Virginia on Nov. 28, 2007.

Virginia has won six national championships (1989, 1991-94, 2009). Nine of UVa’s 2012 regular-season foes reached the tournament – the Cavaliers were 2-5-4 against those teams.

Virginia-New Mexico Series History
Virginia and New Mexico are playing for the second time, and both have come in NCAA tournament play. The teams played to a 1-1 draw on Nov. 27, 2004, in the third round of the NCAA tournament in Charlottesville, with UVa advancing 6-5 on PKs.

The teams share one common opponent this year: UCLA. UNM opened the year with a 3-2 win at UCLA; nine days later the Cavaliers fell 1-0 in overtime to the Bruins in Charlottesville.

Last Time Out: Virginia 1, Lafayette 0
Will Bates (Sr., Chester, Va.) headed home a Scott Thomsen (Fr., Brick, N.J.) corner kick in the 87th minute for the match’s lone goal as Virginia claimed a 1-0 victory over Lafayette Thursday afternoon in a first-round NCAA tournament match at Klöckner Stadium. UVa extended its unbeaten streak to seven straight matches, while ending the Lafayette (9-8-4) seven-match unbeaten string.

The teams slogged through a physical, defensive-dominated match throughout before UVa broke through with just 2:40 remaining in the contest. On the third of three straight corner kicks, Thomsen lofted the ball to the center of the box where Bates leaped in traffic to put a head on it and knock it past goalkeeper Nathan McDonald.

Virginia Bullet Points
• UVa is 2-3-3 in road and neutral-site matches this year; seven of the eight came against NCAA tournament teams.
• The Cavaliers are playing west of the Mississippi for the first time since opening the 2009 season in Seattle at Washington’s tournament.
• With seven assists Scott Thomsen has the most helpers for a UVa player since Chris Tierney in 2007.
• UVa is 28-2-1 since ‘09 when Will Bates scores a goal (only losses were last year at Wake Forest and Oct. 12 against WF).
• UVa has started six freshmen in each of the last nine matches
• Sixteen of Virginia’s 20 matches have been decided by one goal or a tie.
• UVa has won at least 10 matches in each of George Gelnovatch’s 17 years as head coach.

Touting New Mexico
Regular-season champion of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, New Mexico played Air Force to a 1-1 draw last Sunday in the MPSF championship game lbefore falling in a penalty-kick shootout. UNM gave up the equalizer with 16 seconds remaining in regulation before going through two overtimes and the shootout.

New Mexico boasts one of the nation’s most high-powered offenses, averaging an NCAA-best 2.6 goals per game. UNM has scored 52 goals this year, second only to Coastal Carolina, which has tallied 57 goals. Devon Sandoval leads the team and ranks eighth nationally with 14 goals this year.

UNM also owns a stingy defense which gives up 0.63 goals per game (sixth fewest in the nation). Goalkeeper Victor Rodriguez ranks third nationally with a 0.51 goals-against average.