Sweet 16 bound
Men’s Soccer advances to the third round of the NCAA Tournament
Connecticut College’s men’s soccer team takes on Redlands in Sweet 16 play Saturday, Nov. 20, at 3:30 p.m., at Tufts University’s Bello Field in Medford, Massachusetts. The winner will face either Tufts or Washington College, who play at 1 p.m.
The men’s team advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament after a thrilling weekend.
Read below for more.
After a scoreless first half in the NCAA Tournament second round match between Connecticut College and New York University, forward MT Tshuma ’22 sent Conn’s homefield crowd into a frenzy when he found the back of the net with a well-placed header in the 60th minute.
The celebrations only got louder as Steve Yeonas ’23 and Augie Djerdjaj ’23 each added goals, and the Camels punched their ticket to the Sweet 16 with a 3-0 victory on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Conn’s Freeman Field.
The Camels set a school record by winning their 15th game of the season and advanced to the third round for the second straight time. They eclipsed the program’s previous mark of recording 14 victories back in 1978.
“It’s super exciting,” Djerdjaj, who earlier in the week was named NESCAC Player of the Year, told The Day newspaper. “Our freshmen year we got a taste of it when we hosted. Unfortunately, we lost in the round of 32 that year (2018). Getting an opportunity to once again play in front of our home crowd in the tournament, we wanted to take full advantage of it and not take anything for granted.”
The Camels outshot NYU 24-4 and had an 8-0 advantage in corner kicks. Goalie Sam Maidenberg ’23 earned another shutout victory with two saves.
The win capped off a thrilling weekend for the Camels. In opening round action on Saturday, Conn outlasted Salem State in a penalty kick shootout following a scoreless 90 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of sudden death overtime. After Steve Yeonas ’22 and Lorenzo Bocchetti ’22 converted for Conn, the shootout was tied 2-2 before Jack Marvel ’24 made the final kick to put Conn on top 3-2.
Coach Reuben Burk told The Day that the team feels good and confident, but is still hungry.
“We’ve been to the Sweet 16 before and the Elite Eight before. You have to keep improving and you have to be self-critical and we have to keep finding ways to improve so we do make school history,” he said.
