Virginia Commands Spotlight : College soccer: Cavaliers overshadow UCLA, Indiana and Rutgers with four seniors who can win fourth NCAA title.

By GRAHAME L. JONES

Dec. 9, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTE, N.C. —

Virginia has four players trying to make history.

Indiana has one player trying to make it for his father.

Then there are UCLA and Rutgers.

They’re just trying to make it to Sunday.

Just what else the Bruins are trying to accomplish in soccer’s final four is not readily apparent.

Sure, UCLA wants to add another NCAA championship to the titles it won under Coach Sigi Schmid in 1985 and 1990. But where’s the angle? Where’s the hook? What would make people outside Westwood care whether they win?

For Virginia, the answer is simple. The Cavaliers, under Coach Bruce Arena, have won the last three NCAA championships, all played--like this one--at Davidson College, 20 minutes north of Charlotte. If they can get past Rutgers in today’s first semifinal and win again Sunday, four Virginia players will have accomplished something never done before.

Forwards A.J. Wood and Nate Friends, midfielder Tain Nix and defender Clint Peay will have become the first soccer players to win four NCAA titles. They might well be the first athletes to do so in any Division I-A sport.

Bill Walton, Lew Alcindor and Fred Lynn were part of programs that won four consecutive titles, but, under NCAA rules in force at the time, they were ineligible as freshmen. The rules changed, and a four-peat for Wood, Friends, Nix and Peay could be a unique achievement.

Standing in their way today at 2 p.m. will be the next-to-last hurdle they must clear. Rutgers, under Coach Bob Reasso, is a decided underdog, but the Scarlet Knights are not awed by the fact that the Cavaliers are unbeaten in their last 23 NCAA matches.

“We have a tremendous amount of respect for Bruce Arena and his players and their program and what they’ve accomplished,” Reasso said Thursday. “But, at the same time, we relish the challenge. This is one of the best final fours over the past few years because of the teams that are here.

“Virginia is a great soccer team. It’s a team that has a tremendous amount of experience in a big tournament like this. The players have a lot of athletic ability. They have two great front-runners (Wood and Friends). I think one of the trademarks of Virginia soccer over the last three, four, five years is that they have a lot of players who are very comfortable on the ball. They send a lot of players forward. All their players can contribute in the attacking third. Whenever you face a team like that, it’s a very difficult task.”

Rutgers’ hope lies in denying Virginia the scoring chances it needs and in perhaps getting a quick counterattack goal or two created by the speed of its own strikers, Rob Johnson and Hamisi Amani-Dove.

Indiana, meanwhile, comes into its semifinal against UCLA seeded first and as the country’s top-ranked team. But there are doubts about the Hoosiers’ ability, even though they defeated the Bruins, 2-0, in Westwood in October.

Coach Jerry Yeagley has the added pressure of trying to win his son an NCAA title. Or rather, midfielder Todd Yeagley has the pressure of trying to win one for his father.

“To be in the final four and have the chance to win a national championship with your son, that’s something you can’t put into words,” the elder Yeagley said Thursday.

Schmid, meanwhile, must replace starting goalkeeper Chris Snitko and defender Frankie Hejduk, both ineligible after being red-carded in the quarterfinals. Matt Reis, a freshman from Mission Viejo, will start in goal in what is unquestionably the biggest game of his career. The return of midfielder Eddie Lewis and defender Adam Frye will help UCLA’s cause.

Schmid, like Reasso, knows his team is the underdog but is equally unconcerned.

“I think the first time we played Indiana, we were a little bit in awe of them,” he said. “But once we realized we could play with them, I thought the second half was pretty even.

“I’m eager about the game. This is a team that believes it can win. It doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks. It doesn’t matter what the odds look like. It doesn’t matter what the adversity is. They have this belief they can win.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Teams at a Glance

VIRGINIA (20-3-1)

* Conference: Atlantic Coast.

* Coach: Bruce Arena (17th year, 272-57-30).

* NCAA appearances: 16.

* NCAA record: 24-10-4.

* NCAA championships: 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993.

RUTGERS (14-9-3)

* Conference: Atlantic 10.

* Coach: Bob Reasso (14th year, 214-77-35).

* NCAA appearances: nine.