2011 NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament

The 2011 NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament was a single-elimination tournament involving 48 teams to determine the champion of the 2011 NCAA Division I men's soccer season. The 53rd edition of the tournament began on November 17, 2011 and culminated with the North Carolina Tar Heels defeating the Charlotte 49ers, 1–0, in the final on December 13 at Regions Park in Hoover, Alabama.

While the tournament resulted in few upsets, most national soccer headlines were made behind Charlotte's run to the final. The 49ers entered the tournament through an at-large bid, and were not seeded. Despite that, they were able to defeat defending champions, the Akron Zips, 1–0, in the third round, and then the Connecticut Huskies, 4–2, in a penalty shootout to advance to the College Cup. Joining the Tar Heels and the 49ers in the College Cup were the UCLA Bruins and the Creighton Bluejays.

With the victory in the national final, the Tar Heels won their second NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship in program history.

Qualified Teams

A total of 48 teams will qualify into the tournament proper, either automatically, or through an at-large bid that is determined by a selection committee. Each conference that field varsity soccer teams are admitted one automatic berth into the tournament. Depending on the conference, that automatic berth is either given the champions of the regular season, or the tournament that culminates the regular season. Twenty-two teams earn automatic bids into the tournament, while 26 enter through an at-large bid.

Automatic bids

Team Conference Last Appearance Appearances Stony Brook America East Conference 2009 3 UNC Atlantic Coast Conference 2010 19 Florida Gulf Coast Atlantic Sun Conference N/A 1 Xavier Atlantic 10 Conference 2010 2 St. John's Big East Conference 2009 10 Liberty Big South Conference 2007 2 Northwestern Big Ten Conference 2009 UC Irvine Big West Conference 2009 Delaware Colonial Athletic Association 1970 3 SMU Conference USA 2010 23 Loyola Horizon League 2008 3 Dartmouth Ivy League 2010 26 Fairfield Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference 2008 4 Northern Illinois Mid-American Conference 2006 4 Creighton Missouri Valley Conference 2010 19 New Mexico Mountain Pacific Sports Federation 2010 Monmouth Northeast Conference 2010 9 UCLA Pac-12 Conference 2010 31 Colgate Patriot League 2008 Elon Southern Conference N/A 1 Western Illinois The Summit League 2009 Saint Mary's West Coast Conference 2009

At-Large Bids

Conference Team Last Appearance AppearancesACC Duke 2010 ACC Virginia 2010 25 ACC Boston College 2010 ACC Maryland 2010 14 ACC Wake Forest 2009 15 A10 Charlotte 2009 Big East Rutgers 2006 Big East Louisville 2010 Big East South Florida 2010 16 Big East Connecticut 2010 32 Big East Providence 2010 Big East West Virginia 2010 13 Big South Coastal Carolina 2010 Big 10 Indiana 2010 36 Big West UC Santa Barbara 2010 10 CAA James Madison 2005 13 CAA Georgia State CAA Old Dominion 2010 13 Conference USA South Carolina 2005 19 Conference USA UAB Conference USA Central Florida 2010 Ivy League Brown 2010 Mid-American Akron 2010 13 Missouri Valley Bradley 2010 Mtn Pac Sports Fed CSU Bakersfield Southern Furman

Format

Like previous editions of the NCAA Division I Tournament, the tournament featured 64 participants out of a possible field of 198 teams. Of the 64 berths, 22 were allocated to the conference tournament or regular season winners. The remaining 42 berths were determined through an at-large process based upon teams' Ratings Percentage Index that did not win their conference tournament. The most at-large berths went to schools from the Big East and Atlantic Coast conferences, containing half of the tournament field's at-large berths (six and five berths, respectively). Of the remaining 11 berths, six were from the Colonial Athletic and Conference USA conferences, each earning three berths.

From there, the NCAA Selection Committee selected the top sixteen seeds for the tournament, that earned an automatic bye to the second round of the tournament. The remaining 48 teams played in a single-elimination match in the first round of the tournament, to play a seeded team in the second round.

Similar to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, each of the tournament rounds were single-elimination. However, matches tied at the end of regulation went to two 10-minute golden goal periods, followed by a penalty shoot-out, if necessary. All matches in the first, second and third rounds, as well as the quarterfinals, were hosted by the higher seed. The College Cup, also known as the semifinals and final for the tournament were held at a neutral venue, this time being at Regions Park in Hoover, Alabama (south of Birmingham).

Seeded teams

Seeded teamsSeedSchoolConference RecordBerth type1North CarolinaACC16–2–2Tournament winner2CreightonMVC17–2–0Tournament winner3ConnecticutBig East14–2–2At-large4Boston CollegeACC14–5–0At-large5MarylandACC12–3–3At-large6SMUC-USA13–5–1Tournament winner7South FloridaBig East11–3–3At-large8UC IrvineBig West16–4–1At-large9St. John'sBig East14–5–2Tournament winner10New MexicoMPSF16–0–3Tournament winner11UABC-USA13–3–3At-large12LouisvilleBig East11–6–2At-large13UCLAPac-1214–4–1Tournament winner14James MadisonCAA11–4–2At-large15UC Santa BarbaraBig West13–6–1At-large16IndianaBig Ten11–3–5At-large

Schedule RoundDateFirst roundNovember 17, 2011Second roundNovember 20, 2011Third roundNovember 27, 2011QuarterfinalsDecember 3, 2011College Cup: SemifinalsDecember 9, 2011College Cup FinalDecember 11, 2011

Bracket

Regional 1

Regional 2

Regional 3

Regional 4

College Cup – Regions Park, Hoover, Alabama

Schedule

Host team, or higher seed, is listed on the right. Away team or lower seed is listed on the left.

First round

Second round

Numbers represent the seed the team earned in the tournament.

Third round

Quarterfinals

College Cup: Semifinals

College Cup: Final

Statistics

Top goalscorers 4 goals

Casey Townsend – Maryland

3 goals

Darren Mattocks – Akron Giuseppe Gentile – Charlotte Mamadou Diouf – Connecticut Ethan Finlay – Creighton Ben Speas – North Carolina Chandler Hoffman – UCLA

2 goals

Dylan Remick – Brown Sean Rosa – Brown T. J. Beaulieu – Charlotte Jennings Rex – Charlotte Ashton Bennett – Coastal Carolina Teejay East – Coastal Carolina Tony Cascio – Connecticut Chris Thomas – Elon Nikita Kotlov – Indiana Nick DeLeon – Louisville Colin Rolfe – Louisville Billy Schuler – North Carolina Tom Mohoric – Saint Mary's Trevor Newquist – Saint Mary's

1 goal

Scott Caldwell – Akron Luke Holmes – Akron Aodhan Quinn – Akron Patrick Chin – Boston College Keegan Balle – Bradley Scott Davis – Bradley Bryan Gaul – Bradley Jochen Graf – Bradley Aidan Leonard – Brown T. J. Popolizio – Brown Evan James – Charlotte Ricky Garbanzo – Coastal Carolina Cyprian Hedrick – Coastal Carolina Steven Miller – Colgate Matt Schuber – Colgate Carlos Alvarez – Connecticut Bruno Castro – Creighton Jose Gomez – Creighton Andrew Ribeiro – Creighton John Dineen – Delaware Nick Palodichuk – Duke Chris Tweed-Kent – Duke James Carroll – Elon Daniel Shaw – Fairfield Jake Zuniga – Fairfield Martin Ontiveros – Furman Tim Wylie – Indiana Christian McLaughlin – James Madison Jimmy Simpson – James Madison Daniel Keller – Louisville Michael Roman – Louisville Kenney Walker – Louisville Andrew Raymonds – Loyola-Chicago Jordan Cyrus – Maryland Matt Oduaran – Maryland Matt Jeffery – Monmouth Carson Baldinger – New Mexico Blake Smith – New Mexico Matt Hedges – North Carolina Rob Lovejoy – North Carolina Enzo Martínez – North Carolina Kirk Urso – North Carolina Isaac Kannah – Northern Illinois Mike Mascitti – Northern Illinois Sean Totsch – Northern Illinois Peter O'Neill – Northwestern Brandon Adler – Providence Anthony Baumann – Providence John Raley – Providence Nate Bourdeau – Rutgers Juan Pablo Correa – Rutgers Ibrahim Kamara – Rutgers Bryant Knibbs – Rutgers Riley Hanley – Saint Mary's Justin Howard – Saint Mary's Tyler Engel – SMU Arthur Ivo – SMU Chipper Root – South Carolina Wesley Charpie – South Florida Chase Wickham – UAB Miguel Ibarra – UC Irvine Josue Madueno – UC Santa Barbara David Opoku – UC Santa Barbara Dom Sarle – UC Santa Barbara Luis Silva – UC Santa Barbara Kevan George – UCF Ben Hunt – UCF Víctor Chavez – UCLA Ryan Hollingshead – UCLA Kelyn Rowe – UCLA Reed Williams – UCLA Ross Tomaselli – Wake Forest Eric Schoenle – West Virginia Jay Williams – West Virginia Gino Depaoli – Xavier

Own goals

Colgate (playing against Rutgers) UCF (playing against South Florida)

See also NCAA Men's Soccer Championship 2011 NCAA Division I men's soccer season

References