Photo courtesy of University of Virginia

Virginia senior midfielder Jonathan Villanueva assisted on both goals in Friday's semifinal win.

CARY, N.C. -- Somewhere along the line, somebody must have gotten the idea that Virginia's storied men's soccer program had turned into chopped liver.

The Cavaliers won four consecutive national championships in the 1990s and played in the College Cup, soccer's version of the Final Four, as recently as 2006. However, when the preseason rankings were released this year, the Cavaliers were picked 22nd by College Soccer News and went unranked by the coaches' association.

Maybe some of those same coaches participated in voting for the All-ACC team. There wasn't a Virginia player on the first team.

Wake Forest had four first-team selections but that didn't make any difference Friday night, when Brian Ownby's goal in the third minute of sudden death lifted the Cavaliers past the Deacons, 2-1, in the College Cup semifinals at WakeMed Soccer Park.

Virginia (18-3-3) advanced to the NCAA championship game today at 1 p.m. against top-ranked Akron (23-0-1). An all-ACC final was avoided when top-ranked Akron defeated North Carolina 5-4 on penalty kicks.

Neither team scored in regulation or two 10-minute overtimes.

The Zips are led by Teal Bunbury, a sophomore forward who has scored 17 goals and was named first-team All-American by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

Virginia sophomore midfielder Tony Tchani also made the first team, belated recognition for a UVa team that is 12-0-3 over the last 15 games.

Tchani, from Cameroon by way of Norfolk's Maury High School, was one of four UVa players to make second-team All-ACC. Joining him were senior midfielder Neil Barlow, freshman Will Bates and senior midfielder Ross LaBauex.

Virginia hasn't had a first-team selection since 2006.

"I have no idea why that is," senior midfielder Jonathan Villanueva said, "We obviously have a rich tradition and continuously have produced players who have gone on to [Major League Soccer]."

Junior goalie Diego Restrepo entered play Friday with the lowest goals-against average (0.29) in Division I and had not given up a goal in more than 11 games but didn't even make the All-ACC second team.

Neither did Villanueva, who made his 75th career start Friday night and assisted on both UVa goals. At least one service rated him the nation's No. 1 prospect when he came out of Grand Prairie, Texas, in 2006, but he has never made first- or second-team All-ACC.

"I feel like my college career has been a success," said Villanueva, who said he appreciated his selection as the nation's top prospect and never considered it a burden. "It's two College Cups now and going to the NCAA final. I feel like I've had a pretty decent career by any stretch of the imagination."

Nevertheless, Villanueva said the Cavaliers felt a need to prove the preseason pollsters wrong.

"Absolutely," he said. "Given the players who were returning, we didn't understand why we were unranked or [picked] so low. We used that as motivation."

Wake Forest (17-4-3) was picked third in both preseason polls and got as high as No. 1 before the Deacons were knocked off by then-No. 17 Virginia 1-0 in mid-September in Winston-Salem.

"They're right when they say it's hard to beat a team three times," Villanueva said. "We had to do it with Wake and with [preseason-No. 5] Maryland. Those are both big rivals."

Moreover, Maryland was the reigning national champion. Virginia was ousted by visiting Connecticut 2-0 in the second round of the 2008 NCAA tournament, but at least the Cavaliers made the NCAA field.

Virginia is playing in the Division I men's soccer tournament for the 29th straight year, the longest active streak, not that it was a given.

"We went 0-3 in the preseason," Restrepo pointed out to a reporter Friday. "So, you can see how far we've come."