This Coastal Carolina men’s team will face N.C. State in its opening NCAA Tournament game
Coming off its third Sun Belt Conference Tournament title in the past four years, the Coastal Carolina men’s soccer team will open NCAA Championship play at North Carolina State, it was announced during the 2019 NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer show Monday afternoon.
The two teams will face off at 7 p.m. Thursday at Dail Soccer Field in Raleigh, N.C.
CCU (9-7-3) is making its 16th appearance in the 48-team NCAA Tournament and 13th under head coach Shaun Docking.
After missing the tournament last season, CCU is playing in the NCAA playoffs for the ninth time in the past 10 seasons. The C’hanticleers reached the third round for the fourth time in their last appearance in 2017, falling 2-0 at eventual national champion Stanford.
Coastal earned the Sun Belt’s automatic berth by defeating Georgia State (12-4-4) in Sunday’s conference championship game in a seven-round penalty kick shootout that CCU won 6-5 to claim a 2-1 win.
Sam Snaith tied the game at 1 for CCU off a corner kick from Morten Timm with just over a minute left in regulation. It was Snaith’s team-leading eighth goal of the season and Timm’s team-leading fourth assist. Keeper Alberto Ciroi made four saves and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, joining teammates Jeranimo Power, Kasper Skraep and Snaith on the all-tournament team.
The Chants and Wolfpack have met four times previously with N.C. State holding a 3-1 lead in the series. They have not met since 2014, CCU’s lone win in the series by a 3-1 score in Raleigh.
N.C. State posted a 9-6-3 overall record and will also be making its third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and 16th overall. The Wolfpack are ranked 29th in the nation according to the votes it is receiving in the United Soccer Coaches association poll, and is ranked 35th in the NCAA men’s soccer RPI (Rating Percentage Index) while Coastal is 60th in RPI.
The winner of the match will face No. 8 national seed SMU (16-1-1, 5-1-1 American Athletic Conference) in Dallas at 8 p.m. Sunday.
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 5:24 PM.
