Men’s Soccer to Play in NCAA Tournament
The Boston University Men’s Soccer team has been selected by the NCAA’s selection committee to play in the 2015 National Tournament.
The Terriers will open up tournament play on Thursday, November 19th at Jessee/Miller Field in Hartford, Connecticut against the University of Connecticut (9-5-6). UConn suffered a heart-breaking lost in the American Athletic Conference Championship to Tulsa in penalty kicks.
The Huskies hold a 31-12-3 series advantage over the Terriers, winning their last meeting on September 6, 2013 by a score of 1-0 when UConn was the top-ranked team in the nation. However, in the NCAA Tournament, it has been BU who has had the upper hand as they have taken down UConn in two out of the three match-ups between the New England schools. The last playoff meeting between these two came in 1988 when the Terriers defeated the Huskies by a score of 3-1.
After the Terriers’ (12-5-2) loss in the semi-finals of the Patriot League Tournament to eventual runner-up American University, many around the collegiate soccer community felt that BU’s season was over. However, due to their 31st ranked RPI combined with strong victories and close losses to fellow tournament teams like Boston College, the NCAA decided to extend an at-large bid to Neil Roberts’ squad. Despite having a better RPI than UConn, the Terriers will travel to Hartford for their play-in contest.
BU joins Boston College, UConn, Stanford, and Virginia as the only five schools to make the post season tournaments in all of men’s soccer, women’s soccer, and field hockey.
The game will be broadcasted live on the WTBU Sports Mixlr, and coverage will begin at 6:45 p.m. for the 7:00 p.m. game.