CCU men’s soccer extends NCAA tournament streak

The Coastal Carolina men’s soccer program extended its streak of NCAA tournament appearances to six straight seasons as it was announced Monday that the Chanticleers would again be in the 48-team field.

And while reaching the postseason has become an expectation now for the program, the NCAA selection show was a little more suspenseful this year than it has been in recent seasons.

After incurring an unfortunate slew of injuries over the last month or so of the regular season, the Chants (12-2-4) are 0-1-3 in their last four matches and were eliminated in the first round of the Big South tournament last week, but their season nonetheless continues as they will host North Florida in the first round of the NCAA tournament Thursday night.

The winner advances to play fifth-seeded North Carolina.

“It was very nerve-wracking with the results that we’ve had in the last month, we were obviously very concerned,” Chants coach Shaun Docking said. “Obviously the first half of the season is what’s got us in, so we’ve had two halves of the season. The first was excellent, very, very good and entering into the second half of the season we set ourselves up pretty well to get an at-large bid.

“I’m really glad to be in. Six years in a row now that we’ve been in the NCAA tournament, it’s a wonderful bar for us that we’ve set as a program and as an institution.”

Unfortunately the team’s health situation hasn’t gotten any better. Coastal Carolina will now also be without sophomore midfielder Louis Dargent (three goals, one assist) for the rest of the season due to an ankle injury. He joins senior forward Bryce Follensbee (team-high seven goals), who is out for the season with a knee injury, and potentially one or two other starters who will not be available Thursday night, Docking said.

Since losing Follensbee, Coastal Carolina has scored just one goal in four matches and it was Dargent who delivered that one.

“It’s really disheartening. I think we may get one or two guys back for Thursday … but again it’s a very different team than what we had for the first half of the season so we’ve got to do the best we can Thursday night and see if we can advance to Sunday’s game,” he said.

Overall, this will be Coastal Carolina’s 12th NCAA tournament appearance in program history and 10th under Docking.

The Chants reached the second round of the tournament last year after advancing to the third round each of the previous two seasons.

North Florida, meanwhile, enters the postseason with a 10-6-1 record and earned its spot in the field by winning the Atlantic Sun championship. The Ospreys average 1.94 goals per game, led by Helge Pietschmann (eight goals, one assist).

“It’s pretty typical to what it’s been over the last six years,” Docking said of the team’s draw on the bracket. “We play the winner of the Atlantic Sun again, like we did last year. So it’s great to host that game and get a home game, and then if you do win that, then it’s playing one of the top teams in the ACC. …

“It’s an incredibly difficult region to get out of. So it’s what we expect being in this region. It’s no different than the past [five] years what we’ve been used to, but having said that we still have to do well Thursday.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2015 at 2:35 PM with the headline "CCU men’s soccer extends NCAA tournament streak."