Virginia Soccer Defeats No. 2 Maryland in Roller Coaster Season

What a strange season it's been so far for the Virginia men's soccer team.  The hype machine started cranking up after the Hoos defeated Duke in Durham for the first time in a decade, on Fox Soccer no less. But then came a peculiar 2-0 loss to Liberty, and a narrow 4-3 home victory over Radford, left fans wondering, was Duke a fluke?

The Hoos answered that last Friday with a solid 2-1 victory over No. 2 Maryland, handing them their first loss of the season.  Junior Will Bates found freshman Ryan Zinkhan to give the Cavaliers the 1-0 lead in the 51st minute.  Zinkhan returned the favor in the 84th minute, giving Bates the game-winning goal, his 10th goal of the season.

Bates now has 10 goals on the season, ranking him third in the ACC, and 24 points on the season, tying him for second. The Hoos' only ACC loss comes to No. 4 North Carolina.

Virginia has a midweek tilt tonight at 7pm in Klockner Stadium.  This should be an easy win for the Cavs, but I would have said the same thing last week against Liberty, so there's that.

Navy likes to take shoot, shoot, shoot, outshooting their opponents 205-172 on the season, or 14.3 per game. By comparison, Virginia is averaging 13.5 shots per game, with the difference being that the Hoos are connecting on 14.8% on their shots, compared to the Midshipmen's 8.8%. 

Navy owns a commanding 11-3 lead in the series between the two squads.