The 2016 NCAA Men’s College Cup kicked off this week. Defending champions Stanford had a bye from the first round as a series of unseeded, round one games took place. Men’s NCAA soccer concludes with the oddly numbered 48-team bracket. To make it even more confusing, the selection committee identifies the top 16 seeds and then places them around the bracket.
Thus seeds 1, 8, 9, 16 would be in one region, and so forth. Just like in the women’s tournament, they do not name the regions of the bracket. I guess they are attempting to hold more true to the World Cup format rather than the US collegiate style. We will break them down by the top seed in each region.
Maryland Region
All of the home teams advanced, with FGCU surviving the biggest scare. Only Creighton will like their chances of further advancement.
Providence 2-0 Delaware
Creighton 3-0 Tulsa
Florida Gulf Coast 2-2 South Florida (FGCU in PKs)
Dartmouth 1-0 St. Francis (Brooklyn)
Clemson Region
The top half of the bracket resolved matters in regular time, while the second two matches saved their entertainment for much later. Both the New Mexico and UNLV wins not only went to penalty kicks, but needed extra kicks before a six to five result could be reached in both matches. There is a South Carolina showdown with Clemson at the top of the bracket, while Washington could prove a tough challenger later on having sent several players on to the Seattle Sounders club.
South Carolina 1-0 Mercer
Boston College 1-0 Fordham
New Mexico 0-0 Portland (New Mexico in PKs)
UNLV 1-1 San Diego State (UNLV in PKs)
Louisville Region
The jam-packed Louisville region was home to a brace of four-goal victories in the opening round. However, the real action will be this coming weekend when four former champions all hit the pitch in what was to be the strongest region. Seven time champions, UVA, are ranked a 12 seed in this very competitive year.
Pacific 1-0 CSUN
Vermont 4-1
Loyola Chicago 2-0 Illinois Chicago
UCLA 4-2 Colgate
Wake Forest Region
It is important to note that three of four top seeds all hail from the ACC. The fourth is Maryland, a former ACC school. Eight of the last nine finals have featured teams with ACC history. In Round 1, division foes Coastal Carolina squared off, while Virginia Tech returned to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2007.
Akron 2-0 Villanova
Virginia Tech 1-0 East Tenn. St.
SIUE 1-1 Michigan State (SIUE in PKs)
Coastal Carolina 2-1 Radford
Round 2 Match-Ups & TV Schedule
All of the 16 Round 2 matches will take place on Sunday, kicking off at 1:00 pm ET. Matches will air across ESPN3, conference specific channels (i.e. SEC Network, ACC Network), and the NCAA.com website.
A few key matches to watch for are:
Unseeded UCLA looking to knock off Louisville on the road
Virginia Tech traveling to Charlotte for another road upset
How #1 seed Maryland looks in their opening match against Providence
