No. 14 Virginia had to settle for a 3-3 tie against No. 5 Clemson in Charlottesville, but it felt almost like a win for the Cavaliers, who battled back from two goals down at the half for the draw for2,222 fans.
Marcus Salandy-Defour scored two goals and Spaniard Sergi Nus had the game-tying goal form the penalty spot in the 80th minute.
“I think forme, the second half is as good of a fight back as I’ve seen,” Virginia head coach George Gelnovatch said. “When you’re down in the conference 3-1, I don’t care where youare — home, away — against as good of a team as Clemson, it’s generally a disaster. Our guys did a great job in the second half and we put ourselves in a position to win.
“Ithought we’d get some chances [in the second half] and I thought we could get that second goal in the first 10 or 15 minutes. We got them on their heels and once we got the second one I feltvery confident about the third and I actually thought we were going to win it.”
Virginia jumped on Clemson early, scoring just 81 seconds into the contest on Salandy-Defour’s firstgoal but the Tigers took command with three goals over a 22-minute span from Malick Mbaye, Austin Burnikel and Oliver Shannon.
UVA started its comeback in the 58thminute when Edward Opoku found Salandy-Defour, who scored to the near post. Opoku again created problems in the 80th minute when he charged into the box to beat two Clemson defenders and wastaken down to draw a penalty kick. Nus then buried his second penalty of the year to knot the score at 3-3.
The match featured 49 fouls and seven cautions.