Nov. 29, 2014
#16 VIRGINIA
(11-6-2)
vs.
#1 NOTRE DAME
(12-4-4)
NCAA Championship Round of 16
Sunday, Nov. 30 – 7 p.m. (ET)
Alumni Stadium – Notre Dame, Ind.
TV/INTERNET
ESPN3
LIVE STATS
UPDATES
@NDMenSoccer
IRISH TO HOST VIRGINIA IN ROUND OF 16
– Top-seeded Notre Dame will play host to Atlantic Coast Conference rival Virginia, the No. 16 seed, Sunday in the NCAA Championship Round of 16. The match is slated for 7 p.m. (ET) at Alumni Stadium.
– The game will be broadcast on ESPN3 and live stats will be available via Gametracker on UND.com.
– The winner of Sunday’s match will face the winner of the showdown between Syracuse and Georgetown next weekend in the quarterfinals.
ANOTHER CAVALIER ENCOUNTER
– Sunday will be the third meeting this season between Notre Dame and Virginia. The two teams tied 1-1 in the regular-season clash in Charlottesville, Va., while the Irish bested the Cavaliers 3-0 in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament at Alumni Stadium.
– This is the first time in program history that Notre Dame has faced the same team three times in one season.
– Sunday will be the eighth meeting all-time between Notre Dame and Virginia. The Cavaliers lead the series 4-1-2.
– The two programs met twice last season. Virginia won at Notre Dame, 2-0, during the regular season. That was Notre Dame’s only loss during the 2013 campaign. The Irish and Cavaliers squared off in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament and following a 3-3 draw, Virginia advanced on penalty kicks, 4-3.
– This is the second time Notre Dame and Virginia have met in the NCAA Tournament. The Cavaliers topped the Irish, 3-2, in the quarterfinals of the 2006 tournament in Charlottesville.
– Head coach Bobby Clark is 1-2-2 versus Virginia during his Notre Dame tenure and he is 2-3-2 all-time against the Cavaliers.
Bobby Clark on facing Virginia again…
“They’ve had a good look at us and obviously we’ve had a good look at them. They have several looks that they can throw at us so we have to be ready for whatever comes. If you look at the score sheet from the last game it made it look pretty comfortable, but it was never a comfortable game. Games change on goals and the goals fell our way. I don’t think anyone from our team will be kidded into thinking this is going to be an easy game. I remember a year ago when we played them in the regular season it was a pretty even game and they won 2-0 and the goals fell their way. It becomes important when you have people who think they can score goals and they become very important in games like this. I think we have a few people who are capable of scoring in big games.”
Bobby Clark on the advantages and disadvantages of facing a team for the third time in one season…
“You have to be smart. There’s a certain amount of familiarity, but it’s also about what can you do better than you did the last time you played them. That becomes really important. We have to see how we can improve our game from the previous meeting. That is the challenge to our players.”
A LOOK AT UVA
– Virginia is 11-6-2 overall and finished ACC regular-season play with a 3-3-2 mark, which was good for fourth place in the Coastal Division.
– The Cavaliers downed UNC Wilmington, 3-1, in the second round of the NCAA Championship.
– Eric Bird (Sr./M) leads Virginia in goals (5) and points (12). Calle Brown (RS-Sr.) has 17 starts in goal and carries a 10-5-2 record with a 0.79 goals-against average and a .818 save percentage. He also has seven shutouts.
– Last season, Virginia went 13-6-5 (4-3-4 ACC) and fell to Maryland, 2-1, in the semifinals of the NCAA Championship.
– Head coach George Gelnovatch is in his 19th season at the helm of the Virginia program.
THE LAST TIME
– Notre Dame bested Virginia, 3-0, Nov. 9 in the quarterfinals of the ACC Championship at Alumni Stadium. Leon Brown opened the scoring in the 28th minute and Brandon Aubrey put the Irish up 2-0 less than seven minutes later. Patrick Hodan netted the third goal in the 59th minute.
– Notre Dame goalkeeper Patrick Wall made eight saves, while Calle Brown had one stop for the Cavaliers.
POSTSEASON REMATCH
– Sunday will mark the ninth time that the Irish will face an opponent in the NCAA Championship that they met earlier in the season. The Irish are 6-2 in the rematch (6-1 under Bobby Clark).
– Last season, the Irish faced three teams (Wake Forest, Michigan State, Maryland) in the NCAA Championship that they had also squared off with earlier in the campaign. Notre Dame won all three rematch showdowns.
HODAN AGAINST THE WAHOOS
– Notre Dame junior midfielder Patrick Hodan has tallied three goals and two assists in the last three meetings with Virginia. In this season’s two encounters, he has two goals and one assist.
ROUND OF 16 HISTORY
– Notre Dame is 3-3-1 all-time in the NCAA Championship Round of 16.
– The Fighting Irish topped Wake Forest, 4-2, in last year’s round-of-16 match.
FRESHMAN CONNECTION
– Freshman forward Jeffrey Farina has two goals and a team-high seven assists this season, while fellow rookie striker Jon Gallagher has three goals and three assists.
– Gallagher assisted on both of Farina’s goals and Farina has an assist on all three of Gallagher’s tallies.
– Farina assisted on Gallagher’s game winner in last Sunday’s 2-1 victory over Ohio State. Gallagher became the first true freshman in Notre Dame history to score a goal in the NCAA Tournament.
ACC SUCCESS
– ACC teams went a combined 7-0-1 in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, including a perfect 6-0-0 record in the second round. The league has only had one loss to non-conference competition in the tournament over the last two years. The six remaining teams from the ACC are the most from any league.
GET UP, STAY UP
– Notre Dame is 11-0-3 this season when scoring first in a match.
FIGHTING IRISH ON A ROLL
– Notre Dame is riding a season-best six-game unbeaten streak (4-0-2). The Fighting Irish have outscored their opponents 14-5 in those games.
– Notre Dame is 7-1-2 in its last 10 matches with a 22-9 scoring advantage.
IRISH OUST BUCKEYES IN NCAA OPENER
– Notre Dame prevailed over Ohio State, 2-1, in a soggy slugfest in last Sunday’s NCAA Championship second-round match at Alumni Stadium.
– Freshman forward Jon Gallagher tallied the winning goal in the 69th minute of the match, which was played in a steady rain throughout. Sophomore central defender Brandon Aubrey gave Notre Dame a 1-0 lead in the 30th minute when he converted a penalty kick. Ohio State’s Danny Jensen netted the equalizer in the 34th minute.
– Irish goalkeeper Patrick Wall made five saves in the match.
Bobby Clark on the Ohio State match…
“We fought hard. There were good periods of that game that I felt Ohio State controlled the game. The conditions may have favored Ohio State a little bit because they are slightly a more direct team. We hung in there and found a way to make chances and win the game and that’s really important. That’s going to happen this time of year, you’re going to play on some different types of fields.”
–ND–