Virginia Commonwealth University

Score: North Carolina 1, VCU 0
Location: Chapel Hill, N.C. / Dorrance Field
Records: VCU 0-2-1, North Carolina 1-1-1
 
THE SHORT STORY
VCU men's soccer dropped a one-goal match on the road at North Carolina, who appeared at No. 20 in TopDrawerSoccer's week one rankings. Despite a high-intensity second half, the Rams were unable to erase an early deficit, falling on the road.
 
PITCH-SIDE

• Monteiro made a career-high six saves in the match
• Freshman forward Kimarly Scott took the team lead in shots (4) and shots on goal (3) in his third collegiate contest
• Andrey Salmeron had an on-target shot and a pair of shot attempts, pacing the Rams
• Sophomore Brendan Dobzyniak recorded his first shot on goal as a Ram, playing a career-high 59 minutes
• North Carolina's Ryan Zellefrow had six shots, three on goal
• Nick Lockermann scored the lone goal, assisted by Nicolas Loebus
• VCU was outshot 15-5 and North Carolina had seven shots on goal to VCU's three

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• North Carolina's Lockermann found the back of the net in the seventh minute, sending a rocket past the diving hands of Monteiro
• In the 23^rd minute, Monteiro made back-to-back saves on Zellefrow, holding onto the one-goal differential
• Reigniting their attack in the second half, VCU placed three shots on goal in the 65-68^th minutes, pressing the North Carolina defense, but Alan Rutkowski did not concede between the posts
• The Rams fell to the Tar Heels, 1-0, on Friday night

 
QUOTABLE
"Obviously not pleased with the result, but really pleased with the growth from Sunday night to now. We made progress in all the areas we looked at after Sunday's game against Wake Forest. We were able to extend a little more with our pressure and we were much better coming out of the back. Tonight, we had much more of the game than we have ever had here, but right now we lack cutting edge and coordination into the final third. That and some fine-tuning of things we have already looked at will be our focus heading into Wednesday's matchup at High Point. All the teams we will play in the non-conference portion of the schedule will likely be NCAA tournament teams, so the problems we are learning to solve are problems at that level. As I've been telling the fellas everyday: you don't win anything in August and September, but you can lay the foundation for things to be won in October, November and December.
 
"The limited-minutes guys were able to stretch a few more minutes again tonight and we are a few days closer for some of the others to be back with us. If we can keep the growth mindset that we've been displaying so far, this is going to be a really good team that will compete for multiple championships before this season comes to a close," Head Coach Dave Giffard said.
 
UP NEXT
VCU will conclude its season-opening road trip with a pair of contests at No. 9 High Point on Wednesday, Sept. 2, and No. 12 Marshall on Sunday, Sept. 6. VCU at High Point will be broadcast on ESPN+.