Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 6, 1993 TAG: 9312060046
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAVIDSON, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Then came the encore.
Friends, playing with a cast on his surgically repaired left wrist, scored both goals Sunday as Virginia defeated South Carolina 2-0 to win an unprecedented third straight Division I men's title.
"We have an attache case that we keep locked with mementoes that remind us of every year," said UVa coach Bruce Arena, "and right after the game we put Nate's cast in it. It's in the archives."
The Cavaliers (22-3) scored five goals in their final two tournament games at Davidson College and all five were scored by Friends, who had UVa's first goal in its 2-0 victory over San Diego in the 1992 final.
Arena had told the media that he would jump into nearby Lake Norman if the Cavaliers repeated as champions, and Saturday night he informed the team of his vow.
Eyewitnesses confirmed that Arena did go into the lake, followed by starting defender David Cox and backup goalkeeper Taylor Barada.
"We put it to a vote," Arena said, "and 22 [of 23] guys put their hand up. One guy wanted to beat me into the ground. I think it was A.J. [Wood]."
Wood has been the team's designated goal-scorer, but this weekend he yielded that distinction to Friends, a junior forward who came to Virginia as a walk-on.
Friends said in a recent interview that he still was paying his way to attend school, a misconception that his father, Nate Sr., cleared up after reading the article.
"That's between Coach Arena and my father," said Friends, who was an all-region basketball player at McLean High School and did not have the year-round soccer exposure of his contemporaries.
Friends, who can dunk a basketball, used his athletic ability to score UVa's first goal Sunday on a header with 5 minutes, 6 seconds left in the first half. The ball was at the feet of South Carolina goalie David Turner before he had time to recover.
The Gamecocks, who had played a defensive style in the first half, pressed the action on several occasions in the second half before Friends scored off a free kick with 4:01 left.
Freshman Mike Fisher got the assist on both goals, each of which came on a restart. Friends' first goal came off a corner kick and the second from an indirect free kick.
"I would not be lying to you if I said, `We have not worked on corner kicks one minute all season,' " Arena said. "And, when it comes to free kicks, I just say, `Claudio [Reyna], you take it.' "
Fisher took the free kick because Reyna was not in the game, having succumbed to leg cramps for the second straight game. Reyna spent what may have been the final 7:50 of his college career watching from the bench.
Reyna, a junior midfielder, is likely to leave college after this semester to try out for the team that will represent the United States at the 1994 World Cup. Pro teams in Spain and France also are interested in him.
"I'd lean toward saying this is probably my last game," said Reyna, a leading candidate to be named college soccer's player of the year. "I didn't want to leave on a sour note; if I leave now, I guess I could say it's been perfect."
The Cavaliers have prepared themselves for Reyna's likely departure, "[but] we were a little worried that Nate might announce that he was going pro, too," Arena said.
Arena was quick to praise senior goalkeeper Jeff Causey, who posted his third straight shutout in an NCAA championship game. Causey made five saves in the second half, two in succession to stop a South Carolina breakaway with 27 minutes left.
The Gamecocks' best opportunity may have come with 8:45 left, when Billy Clifford got loose behind Causey before UVa defender Brandon Pollard blasted the ball back upfield.
South Carolina (16-4-4) was ranked No. 25 in the coaches' poll, but had not lost since Oct. 1 and entered Sunday's game with a 14-game unbeaten streak. Although the Cavaliers were ranked No. 3 in the last poll, they were not awarded one of the four No. 1 seeds for the NCAA Tournament.
"I was shocked," Causey said. "The whole team was shocked. We were like, `Where did that come from?' It was a big motivation factor."
That was the reason Arena adopted an us-vs.-the-world mentality and kept insisting that nobody thought Virginia would return to the final, despite its co-championship in 1989 and outright titles in '91 and '92.
"With the low-scoring games, upsets occur in this sport more than any other," Arena said. "If you survive this tournament, you're the best. When you can do it three years in a row, I think that's very special."
Virginia 11-2
South Carolina 00-0
Goals - Virginia: Friends 2.
Assists - Virginia: Fisher 2.
Saves - Virginia: Causey 6. South Carolina: Turner 3.
Shots on goal - Virginia, 7-6.
Corner kicks - Virginia, 6-4.
Fouls - Virginia, 12-8.
Caution - South Carolina: Pier.
by CNB