CHARLOTTESVILLE | Virginia was more than a month removed from its last thorough performance, prompting doubts about the top seed in this month’s NCAA tournament.
Consider those worries assuaged.
Brian Carroll scored five goals, Danny Glading added four goals and two assists and the Cavaliers’ defense went more than three quarters without surrendering a score in a 18-6 demolition at Klockner Stadium.
Virginia (14-2) will meet eighth-seeded Johns Hopkins (10-4) in the quarterfinals on Sunday. And the Cavaliers will roll into Annapolis after an evisceration of the Wildcats (11-6), who were making their first NCAA tournament appearance.
Things unspooled quickly for Villanova, who trailed 9-0 after a quarter and 15-0 at halftime. Glading, one of the holdovers from the Cavaliers’ unbeaten national title team in 2006, had two goals and two assists in the first eight minutes.
Goalie Adam Ghitelman’s first postseason game featured little of the pressure typically associated with the tournament. He stopped all four shots on goal he faced, and Virginia led 17-0 by the time he left in the middle of the third quarter.
Every player on Virginia’s starting attack, first and second midfields and regular extra-man units had points by halftime, and faceoff man Chad Gaudet won 14 of 17 faceoffs to help the Cavaliers
About the only doubt left in the final 20 minutes was whether Villanova could score — which it finally did with 8:45 remaining, averting the first NCAA tournament shutout since 1976 and only the second ever.
That was probably the worst thing to happen all day to the Cavaliers, who had lost two of their final three games in the regular season but still managed to earn the No. 1 seed in the tournament.
Maryland 7, No. 7 Notre Dame 3
SOUTH BEND, Ind. | Dan Groot scored two goals and junior goalie Brian Phipps stopped nine shots as the Terrapins (10-6) stunned the Fighting Irish (15-1).
It was the fewest goals Maryland yielded in an NCAA tournament game since a 9-3 defeat of Rutgers in the first round in 1972.
The Terps will meet the winner of last night’s late game between second-seeded Syracuse and Siena on Saturday in Hempstead, N.Y.
