The No. 20 Massachusetts men’s soccer team will begin its quest for NCAA tournament glory in a first-round matchup with Evansville on Thursday. The at-large bid sends UMass (10-3-5, 5-2-1 Atlantic 10) to its sixth NCAA tournament and first since 2020.
The national tournament will make a stop in Amherst, Massachusetts at Rudd Field for the first time since 2017. The Minutemen hold a record of 5-5 in NCAA tournament matches, with four of those wins coming in a single year.
The winner of Thursday’s game will become one of 32 teams to play in the second round. The Penn Quakers, who earned the No. 6 overall seed, await the victor ahead of a Sunday, Nov. 24 contest in Philadelphia.
UMass joins three other A-10 schools in the initial 48-team bracket. Dayton won the conference tournament, granting it automatic qualification. Saint Louis, who knocked the Minutemen out of the A-10 tournament and finished as the runner-up, made the field as well. Fordham rounds out the conference representation.
The Purple Aces (11-6-3, 4-3-1 Missouri Valley) made it to the big dance by way of the MVC tournament. They defeated two fellow tournament teams in the process, including the top-seed Missouri State, who boasts the NCAA’s third-leading scorer, in Jesus Barea. Evansville held the Bears scoreless and squeaked past Western Michigan and Bowling Green with a pair of overtime victories.
The selection committee’s decision to include UMass was straightforward after nine of the teams ahead of it in the rating percentage index won its conference tournaments. After the first 22 auto-bids, a total of 26 additional teams received tournament nods. The Minutemen rank No. 23 in the RPI, warranting a fairly comfortable inclusion.
Both Evansville and UMass find themselves in the top 30 scoring teams countrywide. The Minutemen are one of 12 teams with 40 or more goals scored on the campaign and register the ninth-most goals per game in the nation. Defensively, UMass concedes just over one goal a game, while the Purple Aces sit squarely in the bottom half of the NCAA at over 1.5 goals against per game.
Nacho Diaz Barragan is the danger man for the Evansville attack. The 5-foot-8 Spanish striker leads the team with eight goals. Italian redshirt and freshman midfielder Jacopo Fedrizzi serves as the team’s primary chance creator, dishing out six assists along with four goals of his own this season.
Alec Hughes, the new all-time leading goal scorer at UMass, scored a sizable 35 percent of the team’s goals. None of his teammates are within single digits of his 14 tallies. Matt Cence’s eight assists led the Minutemen’s playmaking. UMass’ goal scoring was spread out otherwise, as 14 unique players jumped onto the scoresheet.
The Minutemen achieved several feats during the regular season as the 10-win season was their first in seven years. They finished the year with eight clean sheets, good for 16th most in Division I. UMass also has the eleventh-best goal differential in the country.
In 2007, the Minutemen made its lone run to the College Cup. They knocked off Boston College in the second round, who held the top overall seed in the tournament. UMass rolled all the way to the semifinals, where they eventually fell to Ohio State. They will look to capture some similar magic in the 2024 edition.
The NCAA tournament match will kick off on Thursday, Nov. 21 at 1 p.m. at Rudd Field. Streaming links will be provided on the UMass Athletics website.
Cameron Pellegrino can be reached at [email protected].
