Coming off a win to end the regular season Saturday against Marshall, the No. 13 UCF men’s soccer team now prepares for the Conference-USA Championship Nov. 9-13 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Midfielder Kevan George scored what would turn out to be the game winning goal in a 2-0 win on his senior night. Coming off two straight losses at home, the Knights (10-4-3, 4-3-1 C-USA) looked for some positive momentum heading into the tournament.
“We’ve got a fine team,” UCF Head Coach Bryan Cunningham said in a press release from the UCF Athletics site. “We’re finally getting healthy, and that is big going into the tournament. Bouncing back today was big. It was our third game in seven days, and to get a shutout against a good Marshall team is huge. We are pretty confident going into next week.”
UCF is the No. 3 seed and will face off against No. 6 Memphis (11-5-1, 4-4 C-USA) on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m in the quarterfinals. UCF finished as the No. 13 team in the country and should be a strong contender for the C-USA title. If they win, the Knights would potentially face rising powerhouse UAB in the next round.
South Carolina and Kentucky are both contenders for the title as this year’s tournament should be full of tough teams.
In what should be an intense opening round match, the Knights take on C-USA’s leading scorer Mark Sherrod, who had 19 points in 17 games and 42 points on the year. Memphis won their only match against the Knights this season 3-2 back on Oct. 29.
This is the first time since UCF joined C-USA back in 2005 in which they recorded back-to-back double digit win seasons, winning 12 games last year and 10 this year, while advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Because of the tough competition and stacked brackets, UCF could have a potential issue getting to the championship game. Their first round match-up will not be easy either considering Memphis defeated them in their only game this season, so look for UCF to be aggressive if they want to advance.
I see this as a chance for UCF to get back to the way they started the season, with the ability to really pick up momentum for a potential NCAA birth yet again. With a potential rematch with South Carolina, who broke the Knights hearts back on Nov. 1, the team will be motivated to avenge the tough loss and return to dominance.
This is their first test at a neutral site, but I see the Knights having the ability to advance to the championship with a good start Wednesday against Memphis.
Game is set for 8:30 p.m.
