[ACC/BIG EAST CHALLENGE] No. 8 Maryland of the ACC beat St. John's, 3-0, and No. 17 West Virginia of the Big East edged No. 11 Virginia, 1-0, in the ACC/Big East Challenge before 3,012 fans at the Maryland SoccerPlex.

MARYLAND-ST. JOHN'S. Sophomores Patrick Mullins and John Stertzer opened the scoring assault four minutes apart and senior Casey Townsend capped the night off with a header in the 76th minute as Maryland erupted for three second-half goals against St. John's.

"It was a great first win," Maryland coach Sasho Cirovski said. "We had a little bit of anxiety in the first half and I thought we were a little bit disconnected and couldn't repossess the ball as much as we wanted. The second half we took a deep breath and picked up a lot of energy and a lot of quality. We kept the ball moving much better. Some of our talented players really settled down."

WEST VIRGINIA-VIRGINIA. Eric Schoenle scored the lone goal for West Virginia in the waning seconds of the first half to provide the final margin.

"This was a good result tonight against one of the best teams in America," said West Virginia coach Marlon LeBlanc. "Now we move forward to take on another ACC team with the potential to win a national title this year."

West Virginia's match at Maryland has been moved to Monday at 7 p.m. because of Hurricane Irene.

"West Virginia is the most athletic team we will play this season. We didn't deal with that well, particularly in the first half and especially with a couple of guys out," Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. "We did a better job against it in the second half and played better over the final 30 minutes a man down. Our response was good and we had some good chances in the last 30 minutes."