Men’s Soccer Falls to No. 4 Virginia and is Eliminated from the ACC Tournament
By Nick Kuzma
CitrusTV Men’s Soccer Beat Reporter
Charlottesville, V.A.- In the 18th minute, No. 4 and two-seed Virginia (15-1-1, 7-1-1 Atlantic Coast) scored off a Nathaniel Crofts goal to go up 2-0.
The score turned out to be the decisive goal in Syracuse Men’s Soccer’s (7-6-5, 2-5-2) 2-1 loss at the hands of the Cavaliers.
UVA had a chance to get the scoring going early after SU’s Sondre Norheim committed a foul in the box. The foul resulted in a penalty for the Cavaliers.
Virginia took advantage of the opportunity as Joe Bell scored to go up 1-0 in the 11th minute.
The Cavaliers led the way with 11 shots, five of which were on goal. The Orange took nine shots with two on goal.
SU’s Christian Miesch saved three of those shots for Syracuse.
The ‘Cuse got on the board in the 70th minute when Ryan Raposo found Luther Archimede off a corner kick. Archimede scored the goal giving the freshman his third score of the season.
The goal brought the score to 2-1, but that’s all the Orange could muster in the loss.
This defeat ended Syracuse’s quest for an ACC Championship, which the Orange have not won since 2015.
Virginia will move on to the ACC Championship Semifinals, where they will meet either Wake Forest or Virginia Tech.
Next up for the Orange, they wait until selection day for the NCAA Tournament, which is Monday the 18th, to see if their season will continue.
Syracuse is ranked No. 28 in RPI, which was last updated on November 3. This ranking was before Syracuse defeated UNC in the First Round of the ACC Tournament.
If Syracuse is selected, it would be SU’s fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in five years.
Date and times of all First Round NCAA Tournament games will be announced tomorrow on the Selection Show.
The stream will go live on NCAA.com at 1:30.
npkuzma@syr.edu | @nkuz71
