Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Rob Simmons sports a Grateful Dead-Virginia Tech soccer head tattoo while hanging put at the Rivermill in Blacksburg Monday evening.

NCAA soccer semis

• Friday | 5 p.m.
• ESPN2 or 101.7 FM

The rest of the Final Four

• Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons, in the NCAAs for the 12 year, made the Cup for the first time last year, losing in the semifinals. Wake beat 10th-seeded Notre Dame 1-0 in overtime in last weekend’s quarterfinals. The Deacons were ranked No. 1 in the finalnational coaches poll. The Hokies and Deacons tied 3-3 when the two teams met in Blacksburg in October.
• Ohio State: The fifth-seeded Buckeyes (16-3-5) will play UMass in the 7 p.m. semifinal Friday on ESPNU. This is their first trip to theCup. The Big Ten champions are on a14-game unbeaten streak.
• Massachusetts: The unseeded Minutemen (17-7-1) are also in the Cup for the first time. The Atlantic 10 champs upset top-seeded Boston Collegein the second round. This is the secondtrip to the NCAAs for UMass.

Related

• Tech soccer player Scott Spangler overcame academic woes with help from the coach’s wife. And he’s a theater major. Story

Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech students Nicholas Mosman (left) passes a soccer ball past opponent Brian Reid (right) during a shirts vs. skins pickup soccer game on the Drillfield. Even though soccer hasn’t garnered quite the attention reserved in Blacksburg for football, hundreds of fans are expected to make the trip to Cary, N.C., to cheer on Tech’s men’s soccer team in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament Friday.

BLACKSBURG -- The Hokies still have a shot at winning a national championship in football this year.

The original "football."

And while the team's success hasn't garnered quite the attention reserved in Blacksburg for the American version, hundreds of orange-and-maroon-clad fans are expected to make the trip to Cary, N.C., to cheer on the Virginia Tech men's soccer team in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament Friday.

Tech junior Aaron Bock and five of his fraternity brothers will be among them. Bock grew up in Roanoke playing travel soccer with the Roanoke Star Soccer Club and has witnessed the ascension of Tech's soccer program over the past few years.

Average attendance for home games has grown from 724 in 2003 -- the year Tech opened its new soccer stadium -- to 1,661 this season. Going to Friday night home games has become a regular activity for Bock and his friends.

Associate director of athletics Jon Jaudon said that was precisely the idea behind scheduling more Friday night home games. And they've managed to take some of those fans with them on the road.

Pockets of maroon and orange could be seen, if not always heard, during the Hokies 1-0 victory over the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Conn., last weekend, Jaudon said. He added that he expects a larger turnout for Tech's rematch against Wake Forest on Friday -- the two teams tied 3-3 when they met in Blacksburg in October. Cary is about 3¹₂ hours from Blacksburg and there are plenty of Tech graduates in the area. Jaudon said he expects that to add up to 400 or 500 Hokie fans -- not exactly the legions who travel for big football games, but enough to make their presence felt.

"Hokie fans are pretty loud as it is," Bock said. "So I think we'll have enough to make some noise."

For those who can't make the trip, the game will be broadcast at 5 p.m. on ESPN2.

The Rivermill, a bar and restaurant in downtown Blacksburg, has become something of a gathering place for soccer fans. On any given night English Premier League games or international friendlies -- non-tournament or tournament-qualifying games between national teams -- can be seen on flat-screen televisions that line the walls. This Friday, instead of watching Manchester United or the Brazilian national team, fans will be able to catch the Hokies.

Rivermill manager Jeff Mangold said he's seen fans stop by the bar for drinks before home soccer games this year and it has developed a reputation as a place to watch soccer since 2002, when it opened in the early morning hours to show World Cup games being played in South Korea.

"We have a good international following," Mangold said. "Whenever there's any type of USA friendly or an important English Premier League game, all of a sudden we'll get a bunch of people in here."

The UConn game wasn't televised so Bock had to settle for listening to it on the Internet as the Hokies upset the Huskies.

"When they scored, I just ran around my room," he said.

At the Rivermill on Monday, Tech soccer fan Rob Simmons was holding out hope that the Hokies would advance to the finals so he could see them play live. He's staying in Blacksburg on Friday to see a friend graduate. A member of a Rivermill-sponsored adult soccer team, Simmons said the common American complaint about soccer -- that the lack of scoring makes it boring to watch -- doesn't apply to those who've played.

"When you play and you have a passion to play, that's when you get into it," he said.

Sporting a Grateful Dead tattoo on his arm with a maroon and orange soccer ball skull, Simmons said college soccer could catch on in Blacksburg, home to many international students and professors as well as multiple high school state champion teams.

But even on the country's most soccer-crazed college campuses, the sport takes a back seat to football and basketball. The top attendance averages in the ACC don't crack 3,000 and the conference has six teams ranked among the top-25 in the nation.

Soccer's second-fiddle status at Tech used to annoy Bock, but he's noticed that the team has garnered more attention from the student media the past couple of years. And the stands were nearly full for home NCAA tournament games against Old Dominion University and Cal-Berkeley. Bringing home the school's first NCAA championship in a team varsity sport would go a long way toward keeping those stands packed, Bock said.

After all, no matter what the sport, everyone loves a winner.

Hokie near misses

The Virginia Tech men’s soccer team is just two wins away from winning the school’s first NCAA championship in a varsity sport. The Hokies most famous bid for a national championship ended in a loss to Florida State in the 2000 Sugar Bowl, but Tech has sniffed national glory on a few other occassions.

Men’s basketball, 1967: Tech loses to Dayton in overtime in the Elite Eight. The Flyers would go on to the national championship game where they’d lose to budding-dynasty UCLA, 79-64.

Men’s cross country, 1987: With a strong team the Hokies had a realistic shot at taking home the title in the championship meet held in Charlottesville. But they finished fourth and the national championship went to perennial powerhouse Arkansas.

Men’s golf, 2001: The Hokies were in contention heading into the final day of the men’s golf championships in Durham, N.C., but had an up-and-down final round and finished eighth.