by TRAVIS CLARK
All season long, the ACC has been the talk of men's college soccer — seen by many as the best conference in the nation. And while the nine schools spent the regular season beating up on each other, the NCAA Tournament was the chance for the conference to prove how good it really is. If the second round is any indication, they are as good as advertised, going 6-1 in Sunday's second round.
The University of Virginia was perhaps most prolific in a 5-0 win against Bucknell, with freshman Will Bates scoring a hat trick as the Cavaliers posted a ninth consecutive clean sheet. Next up for the No. 2 seed is Portland, the only school to beat an ACC squad, besting No. 15 North Carolina State 2-1.
Three unseeded ACC schools scored an upset, as Maryland beat No. 7 Penn State 2-1, Duke defeated No. 10 Michigan State 2-1, and Boston College knocked off No. 13 St. John's 1-0. Highly ranked Wake Forest beat UNC Wilmington 2-1, while in-state counterparts North Carolina answered the challenge of Brown by a 2-0 score.
On a day that witnessed the fall of half the seeded schools, the biggest upset of the day took place in Ohio, where No. 4 seed Ohio State fell at the hands of Drake, 1-0 in overtime. The top-seeded Akron Zips kept the undefeated run going, posting a 21st straight victory with a 2-0 win against South Florida thanks to two goals from Anthony Ampaipitakwong.
Here's a look at the rest of the scores from the second round:
What did you think of the second round? Surprised to see Ohio State lose? Think an ACC team is bound to win the tournament?
Share your thoughts below.
it wasnt too bad. “police escort” makes it seem really official. i made the trip down for that one too, and the police were definitely there to make sure that nothing happened (including forbidding us from sitting in the wake “student section”- which is apparently outside the stadium- for our own safety). after the game they made sure we left the stadium promptly without any confrontation. so, yes, police were there for our safety, but in general, i thought the wake fans were fine. i dont think they ever expected our presence there. wake fans were taking pictures of us singing and cheering and im pretty sure we were louder then their whole stadium (though i may be biased)
No ACC team in Akron’s bracket is laughable. Meantime, UVA will probably have to beat the defending national champions Maryland to even make the final four, after already having played them twice this season (1-0-1) and also having beaten the champions from two years ago (Wake) twice this year. And their reward is a bracket with the defending national champs and the ACC runners up in NC State. Great job, committee.
I heard that the contingent of MD fans who traveled to the Wake Forest game this season received a police escort from the stadium for their protection after the game. Any knowledge of this?
yeah terps. as part of a 40 student contingent who traveled to state college to watch my terps beat penn state, i was thoroughly excited by yesterdays results.
The score of the Wake Forest game was 2-1, not 2-0.
Winner of UCLA/UCSB game will be in Final, count it.
for the final
Akron v. ACC team.