Clemson To Meet Virginia For ACC Soccer Championship

Nov. 17, 2001

Clemson, SC. – The eighth-ranked Clemson men’s soccer team will face second-ranked Virginia for the ACC Tournament Championship on Sunday afternoon at 3:30PM at Historic Riggs Field in Clemson. Sunday’s match will mark the fourth time in the 15 years of the tournament that the two teams have met in the championship match.

In the all-time series, Virginia holds a 19-16-4 advantage over Clemson including a 2-0 victory over the Tigers earlier this season on October 13 in Charlottesville. The two teams last met in the ACC title game back in 1995 and the Cavaliers are 4-0 all-time against the Clemson in the finals. In 1998, Head Coach Trevor Adair led Clemson to its first ever ACC Tournament championship with a win 1-0 over Duke.

Third-seeded Clemson has won 15 out of their last 17 matches and enters Sunday’s championship with a 16-4 overall record. In the last 17 matches, the Tigers have outscored their opponents 50-10. This season, Clemson is 4-0 at home and 6-2 overall against nationally ranked teams.

In the opening round of the tournament on Thursday night, Clemson defeated Maryland by a score of 3-1 while top seeded and regular season champion Virginia earned a bye to the second round. In the second round on Friday night, Virginia defeated ninth-ranked Wake Forest 1-0 in overtime. In the second semifinal match, Clemson beat sixth-ranked and second-seeded North Carolina 2-1 despite being without their second and third leading scorers Dimelon Westfield and Steven Rhyne who both sat out the match due to injuries. Against the Tar Heels, senior Ian Fuller and sophomore Oguchi Onyewu, a 2001 First-Team All ACC performer, each scored goals to lift the Tigers to the win.

Clemson is led in scoring by Fuller who has 10 goals and eight assists for 28 points. Westfield and Rhyne have 23 and 21 points respectively for the Tigers this season. First-Team All-ACC goalkeeper Doug Warren has given up only 14 goals and has a 0.78 goals against average for the season.