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SabreMail - Dec. 15, 2014

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UVa Men's Soccer: National Champions!

From Virginia Athletics Media Relations News Releases

The Virginia men's soccer team earned the NCAA championship over UCLA Sunday afternoon following a penalty-kick shootout in front of 8,015 fans at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C. After the teams played 110 scoreless minutes, Virginia (14-6-3) won the shootout, 4-2, to earn the program's seventh national championship.

The championship is the 21st in Virginia Athletics history. With its seven men's soccer titles, Virginia owns the third-most championships of any program behind only Saint Louis (10) and Indiana (8). UVa now is 7-1 all-time in NCAA Championship matches.

Virginia was the No. 16 seed in the field, while UCLA (14-5-5) was seeded No. 2. The Cavaliers also ousted top-seeded Notre Dame (round of 16) and eighth-seeded Georgetown (quarterfinals) on the road on their road to the championship. UVa matches the second-lowest seed to ever win a championship since the NCAA started seeding 16 teams in 2003, joining No. 16 seed Indiana in 2012. Unseeded UC Santa Barbara won the title in 2006.

"I told these guys before the game that being the best at what you do - being the absolute best at what you do - there's no better feeling," Virginia head coach George Gelnovatch said. "Two hundred five Division I college soccer teams all want to do just what we did. It's really rewarding in the manner in which we did it - constantly changing, constantly adapting, and the whole time they were an unbelievable, coachable group that listened to everything we had to say and executed every game plan - and we had a lot of them. I'm so, so proud of them and happy for them."

The Hoos advanced to the title match with a 1-0 victory over UMBC on Friday thanks to a goal from Darius Madison.

Recruiting News

This Week In Recruiting With Chris Horne

UVa-bound linebacker Jahvoni Simmons and the Ocean Lakes (Virginia Beach, VA) Dolphins captured the VHSL 6A State Championship with a 30-24 overtime win over defending champ Centreville on Saturday. I caught up with Simmons, a senior, following the game and will have a full report on him and coveted cornerback Levonta Taylor, one of Virginia’s top targets in the class of 2016.

Altavista (VA) senior athlete Juan Thornhill led his team to a second straight 1A crown, defeating Essex by a score of 22-20. Thornhill, who committed to UVa as a likely free safety prospect, boasts four state titles (two football, two basketball) in his time at Altavista. I plan to catch up with him for a full article this week as well.

...

Former Virginia offensive line coach Scott Wachenheim is now the head coach at VMI. How might this impact UVa’s offensive line class? Well, we know that at least one prospect, Charlotte (Punta Gorda, FL) senior Grant Polk, was not too happy about the news. Polk, who planned to enroll at Virginia this coming January, may be having second thoughts following Wachenheim’s departure. Whether or not he decides to explore other schools remains unclear, but I’ll check in with him this week to see what’s up.

UVa lost one recruit last week when linebacker commit Kareem McDonald revealed he would not be attending UVa due to an issue at his previous school. McDonald will graduate from Wilson (Washington, D.C.) this coming spring. He plans on enrolling in college next summer, but that school will not be the University of Virginia.

...

4-star linebacker/defensive end Ricky DeBerry Jr. is expected to announce his college choice on Friday (Dec. 19) at 10 am. The Atlee (Mechanicsville, VA) product is a top target of Virginia. We’ll see if the Hoos can surprise some people, but at this point the general feeling is that DeBerry will leave the state. TheSabre.com will be on hand for coverage.

Chris Horne, our resident recruiting expert, provides updates throughout the week for EDGE subscribers about UVa's commitments and recruiting targets in football and men's basketball. To sign up for an EDGE subscription, please check out the Sabre EDGE Sign Up and Information Page. If you're already on board as an EDGE subscriber, click the links below to catch up on recruiting.

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More Hoo News

Around the World of Wahoo Sports ...

UVa Places 10 Cavaliers on the All-ACC Coaches Team: Seven defensive players highlight Virginia’s 10 players named to the 2014 All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Football team, as selected by the league’s 14 head coaches. Quin Blanding was named ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year by the coaches after the media bestowed the same honor on the true freshman last week. Safety Blanding, linebacker Henry Coley, placekicker Ian Frye, defensive end Eli Harold and running back Kevin Parks led UVa with second-team honors. Cornerback Maurice Canady, defensive tackle David Dean, safety Anthony Harris and linebacker Max Valles earned third team accolades, while return specialist Darius Jennings was an named honorable-mention honoree.
Virginia-Harvard Men's Basketball Game Sold Out: The Virginia men's basketball game against Harvard on Sunday, Dec. 21 at 12 p.m. at John Paul Jones Arena is sold out. The sellout marks Virginia's fifth of the season and most since selling out seven contests during the 2007-08 season.
Anderson Named USBWA National Player of the Week: Virginia junior guard Justin Anderson (Montross, Va.) has been named the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) on Tuesday (Dec. 9). Anderson averaged 18.5 points and seven rebounds as No. 6/5 Virginia posted road wins at then-No. 21 Maryland (76-65) and VCU (74-57).
Morgan Brian Named Finalist for MAC Hermann Trophy: Virginia senior midfielder Morgan Brian was named one of the three women's finalists for the 2014 Missouri Athletic Club's Hermann Trophy, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America announced on Friday. It marks the third consecutive year that Virginia has had a finalist for collegiate soccer's most prestigious award. Brian, the reigning MAC Hermann Trophy winner, joins Dagny Brynjarsdottir of Florida State and Sam Mewis of UCLA as this year's women's finalists. The finalists will be honored and the men's and women's winners will be announced at the Hermann Trophy banquet on Jan. 9.
Morgan Brian Named Nominee for Honda Award: Virginia senior midfielder Morgan Brian was named one of the four nominees for the Honda Sports Award for Soccer on Wednesday. The award, given by THE Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA), is annually given to the nation's top player in 12 women's sports.
Virginia Track & Field Announces 2015 Schedule: The Virginia men's and women's track and field teams announced their 2015 indoor and outdoor meet schedules Thursday. The Cavaliers' schedule is highlighted by three home outdoor meets at Lannigan Field. The outdoor schedule includes three home meets at Lannigan Field, the Virginia Cup on Mar. 21, the Virginia Challenge on Apr. 17-18 and the Virginia Grand Prix on May 8.

To read the full stories or gather more information on Virginia athletics, check out Virginiasports.com.

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