Virginia doubles down on soccer

The West Coast was kind to the Virginia men’s and women’s soccer teams. Now both squads are hoping for similar success on this side of the country.

Back in Charlottesville, they’ll do battle tonight at Klockner Stadium as part of a tripleheader.

The No. 16 Virginia women (3-1-1) play host to No. 15 West Virginia (2-1-2) at 6 p.m., while the No. 16 men (2-0) open their home and ACC seasons against No. 19 Duke (5-0) in the nightcap. In other women’s action, Seton Hall (3-1) takes on Dartmouth (1-1) at 3 p.m.

Last weekend in Oregon, the Virginia men won both their games in the Portland Nike Soccer Classic. UVa, behind two goals from sophomore Tony Tchani, soundly defeated Portland, 3-0. Two days later, the Wahoos beat Washington, 2-1, on a Neil Barlow goal in overtime.

“We got Brian Ownby back [from injury],” said Virginia coach George Gelnovatch, “and even though he didn’t score, he caused a lot of problems.”

Gelnovatch also elected to abandon the new-look offensive formation that his team had practiced throughout the preseason. Gelnovatch liked certain aspects of the attacking system — one in which the middle backs bombed forward — but the bottom line was that Virginia didn’t win any of the games.

“We went back to the drawing board and decided to line up exactly how we did last year,” Gelnovatch said. “Our guys are more comfortable with it and I think it suits our guys like Tony [Tchani] a little better. They’re just more comfortable with it and I think that was part of our success over the weekend.”

Meanwhile, in the Sun Devil Classic in Tempe, Ariz., the Virginia women easily handled Arizona, 4-1, before playing Arizona State to a 1-1 tie. Five different players scored for the Cavaliers on the trip.

Virginia and West Virginia are no strangers. The Cavaliers beat the Mountaineers in the second round of the NCAA tournament last season.