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College Soccer: Quarterfinals set as high seeds hang on

CollegeSoccer

by TRAVIS CLARK

It's been a tournament ripe with upsets to this point, and with half the higher seeds still in the mix, there were plenty more for the taking in the latest round of the NCAA Tournament. This time, however, the majority of high seeds were able to hold serve, with the only seeded upset coming from the University of Maryland, 2-0 winners against No. 10 Harvard.

The defending champions won their third straight game thanks to goalie Zac MacMath, who stopped a Andre Akpan penalty and made five saves on the day. Up next for the Terrapins is the University of Virginia, who beat Portland 1-0. This will be the third meeting between the two schools in five weeks, with a spot in the semifinals on the line.

Rounding out the other two ACC representatives are Wake Forest and North Carolina. The Demon Deacons took care of interstate rivals Duke 4-2, and North Carolina squeaked by Indiana 1-0. Wake will meet UCLA in the quarterfinals, for what looks to be the most intriguing match-up of the round. The Bruins knocked out in-state rivals UCSB by a 2-1 score.

Not to be outdone by the ACC's reputation was Akron. The Zips are still the No. 1 seed, and answered the latest challenge of Standford with a 2-0 win in Ohio, one shy of equaling the Division I consecutive winning streak in men's soccer. First half goals from Teal Bunbury and Anthony Ampaipitakwong were enough to pace the nation's best team. The Zips next play host to No. 8 Tulsa, who beat No. 9 Northwestern 1-0.

Biggest upset of the day took place between two unseeded schools. Boston College and Drake met in Chesnut Hill and goal-scoring mayhem ensued. The Eagles got off to a 2-0 lead before Drake came back with four goals in the second half to win 6-4. Up next for the Bulldogs is another ACC foe in North Carolina.

What do you think of the third round results? Surprised to see Drake still in it? Can Akron keep the momentum going and make the championship? What is your favorite quarterfinal match-up?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Akron has been a top 20 team since the 70’s. Infact their teams in the mid to late 70’s and early 80’s could have beat any team in the country. Unfortunately, their region along with the Mid-West were the top regions in the counrty at the time with teams like Indiana, Evansville, Cleveland State Wisconsin Milwaukee, St.Louis, SIU etc.

    The onle East Coast teams that could compete at that time were Clemson, Connecticut, Penn State and maybe LIU.

    Unfortunately,especially back then you could have been one of the 10 best teams in the country and not even be invited to the NCAA’s, with weaker teams from other regions qualifying.

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  2. Hey Benny, you may not remember me as I was a few years after you at Akron. I also remember your Detroit Express days. Have you had a chance to see Akron live this year? I saw them on video streamline and they look very strong in every position.I think Tulsa will be a tough test today though because they are peeking at the right time; however, if Akron plays their game and don’t look ahead of themselves they should prevail. Caleb Porter has done a great job and hasn’t lost a beat since Ken Lolla’s departure.

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  3. FEAR THE ROO! 🙂

    It seems as though some folks are surprised about Akron. The Zips have been fielding a pretty decent team for the past couple of decades now. They were even a runner up in the final to Duke back in ’86 (ah, I remember sitting in my dorm room with classmates listening to the game on the radio). Ever since they just didn’t seem to have enough juice to go the distance in the College Cup, until the hiring of Caleb Porter from the Hoosiers. We could be witnessing the Zips finally taking that next step.

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  4. With Bob Reasso stepping down at Rutgers, is there any chance that RU alum and current St. Johns coach Dave Masur takes a shot at returning the scarlet knights to national prominence?

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  5. Was at the Akron game.
    Zips rarely tested.
    The Cardnial got 1 nice shot the entire game, a wicked volley which was parried.

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  6. I was at the UCLA-UCSB game and Brian Perk was the difference maker for UCLA in goal. He’s not big (which may ultimately prevent him from scaling to the top three keepers in the USMNT pool), but he is absolutely dominant in an NCAA game. UCLA went up 2-1 in the first half (the UCSB goal scored on a defensive breakdown that was close to an offsides) and then bunkered in for the second half, which forced Perk to make several strong saves. They’ll have their hands full with Wake Forest, especially since they won’t be playing in the cozy confines of Drake Stadium on campus, but Perk could be the X factor.

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  7. Hopefully Gelnovatch doesn’t blow this one for the Hoos, his NCAA Tourney record is less than stellar, but we did look much better than the Twerps when we played in the ACC Tourney (cant speak to the regular season game). Still not very confident even though its at Klockner…

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  8. I was at the Harvard/Maryland game yesterday afternoon, and I can tell you neither team looked particularly convincing. With the exception of Maryland’s 2nd goal (a very good individual effort by Cortes), the game was marred by a lot of directionless boot-n-run, bypassing the midfield entirely. Both squads were guilty.

    Granted, I don’t attend a lot of these university-level matches, but I was very disappointed with the lack of of decent–not even exceptional–play by the former national champs and the #10 seed.

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  9. Here’s to hoping the Deacs will make their fourth straight college cup! We need another championship after last year’s disappointment.

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  10. terps have not just been to 6 of 8 elite 8’s, but 5 of the last 7 final fours and won 2 of the last 4 national championships and produced 2 of the last 3 MLS rookie of the years, they lost 4 players last year who made the MLS all rookie team and are still good, pretty astounding, Sasho is the man

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  11. fear the turtle, hard to see MD beating Harvard as an upset, the upset was MD not gettting a seed, ACC continues their total and absolute domination of college soccer

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