NCAA Division I Men's Tournament: No. 1 seed Virginia cruises
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Dec 1, 2019
The Cavaliers advance to the quarterfinals for the 20th time in program history and the first time since winning their seventh national championship in 2014.
Norwegian Andreas Ueland scored his second and third goals of the season, both in headers off corner kicks by Scotsman Daniel Steedman in the first quarter of an hour.
Joe Bell, who recently returned from representing the New Zealand national team, completed the scoring from the penalty spot after sophomore Daryl Dike was taken down in the box in the 36th minute.
“It’s massive to be playing in December,” Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. “When you're playing in December, you're doing something right. And the other part of this too is that we're playing at home. In 2014, we were playing on the road at that time. So to be in a quarterfinal, in December, in your home stadium, in front of your home fans, you couldn't ask for more.”
Goalkeeper Colin Shutler needed to make only one save to record Virginia's 15th shutout of the season, tops in the NCAA Division I men's ranks.
Next up: Virginia will host eighth-seeded SMU on Friday. In a battle of AAC teams, the Mustangs defeated ninth-seeded UCF, 2-1, on Eddie Munjoma's golden goal just 18 seconds into overtime.
Nov. 30 in Charlottesville, Va.
Virginia 3 St. John's 0. Goals: Ueland (Gunnarsson, Steedman) 3, Ueland (Steedman) 15, Bell pen. 36.
Virginia -- Colin Shutler, H.Kessler, Ueland, Afamefuna, Bell, Donasiyano, Steedman, Dike, Crofts, Halsey, Gunnarsson. Subs: Patton, Horton, Nixon, Happi Kamseu, James.
St. John's -- Hoffelner, Juleau, Chandler, Lye, Simonsen, Knapp, Oluwaseyi, Forster, Duarte, Hansen, Bustamante. Subs: Ashrafi, Sangary, Crawford, Gavran, Petridis, Shaw.
Att.: 815.
