CARY, N.C. – It had the numbers, and even the weather conditions on its side. But the Terrapin men’s soccer team needed something else yesterday afternoon to stop Tony Tchani.

Virginia’s powerful sophomore midfielder had done everything but score for the No. 6 Cavaliers (13-3-2) in the first 86 minutes of the two teams’ heated ACC Tournament quarterfinal. But with one quick move as slick as the surface at the WakeMed Soccer Park field, he finished what he started.

Tchani’s juke by Terp defender Kevin Tangney and shot past goalkeeper Zac MacMath thwarted the No. 5Terps’ hopes of a repeat tournament championship in a 1-0 loss. The Terps were powerless to do little else but watch opportunities — and the game’s most dominant player — pass on by.

“They had one player to step up and make a play, and that’s the difference in the game,” coach Sasho Cirovski said. “Simple as that.”

The Terps (12-5-2) controlled the opening minutes of the match, but Tchani and the Virginia  attack soon became as fierce as the beating rain, which forced conference officials to delay the start of the match until 3 p.m. The sophomore nearly found the net in the 22nd minute, when he curled a free kick around a Terp wall that ended just wide of the goal.

Later in the first half, Tchani collected a loose ball five yards from goal as the Terps’ MacMath raced across the line of a vacant goal frame. As he turned toward goal, Tchani teed up an off-balance shot headed for the far corner. But defender Ethan White, as he did so often throughout the match, arrived just in time to clear the would-be goal from the box.

Even when the Cavaliers’ offense stalled, the ball didn’t oftenventure far from MacMath’s sight. An unkind wind held up crosses and goal kicks mid-flight, neutralizing the Terps’ powerful legs, while a drenched field kept the team’s passes and dribbles skidding away.

“It was hard,” Cirovski said. “It was going to be a matter of some players making some special plays in the current conditions because there really wasn’t a lot of flow.”

Crashing sheets of rain and the same howling wind made life miserable for Virginia’s backline, which spent more time in its own box in the second half’s first moments than it did in the first 45.

Soon after, the match morphed into a competitive showdown characteristic of Terp-Cavalier clashes of recent memory.

In the 62nd minute, Virginia midfielder Ross LaBeaux took his second yellow card — an automatic ejection — after throwing an elbow at a nagging Kaoru Forbess. Play opened up on both ends, but the Terps’ uncoordinated attack couldn’t capitalize.

“We had more chances, we had more space,” midfielder Drew Yates said. “We used it to possess the ball more and get a few chances. We just couldn’t put them away. We couldn’t put away one.”

They had their looks. After forward Jason Herrick forced Virginia goalkeeper Diego Restrepo off his line for an ugly clearance in the 82nd minute, Yates had a look at an empty goal from 35 yards out but struck the ball right back to Restrepo. The rebound popped out to Herrick, whose lob toward a still-vacant net sailed wide.

“We had an opportunity with a man down to really put the pressure on them, but we just lacked the quality to deal with the conditions and to make a play that really mattered in the game,” Cirovski said.

On Wednesday, it seemed only Tchani was up to the task. With the game seemingly destined for overtime, Tchani collected a loose ball near midfield as his out-of-position teammates raced back onsides. As the Terp backline found their markers, Tchani zoomed toward Tangney. With a deft flick of the ball from his right to left foot, the sophomore left Tangney lunging at his shadow.

MacMath was powerless to stop the breakaway, and Tchani’s shot aptly avenged the Cavaliers’ 1-0 loss to the Terps in the tournament final last year.

“At the end of the day, … one player on their team stepped up,” Cirovski said. “That’s why they’re still playing.”

shaffer@umdbk.com