Greensboro, NC – The 2021 NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship kicks off Thursday evening with first-round play. Four Atlantic Coast Conference teams will host first-round matches, while an NCAA-best eight ACC teams earned bids into the 48-team field.
Louisville, North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest play host to first-round matches on Thursday evening. All four matches will stream online via ACC Network Extra. All eight ACC teams will start the tournament on their home fields.
The ACC not only picked up the most berths of any conference, but also claimed four of the top eight national seeds, with ACC champion Notre Dame (4), Pitt (5), Duke (7) and Clemson (8). The seeded teams earned first round-byes will host second-round matches on Sunday.
This marks the ninth straight season in which the ACC placed the most teams in the tournament. It also is the 21st consecutive season that at least five league teams earned a bid.
2021 NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship
Thursday, Nov. 18 – First Round
Loyola (Md.) at North Carolina | 6 p.m. | ACCNX
Campbell at Virginia Tech | 6 p.m. | ACCNX
Mercer at Wake Forest | 6 p.m. | ACCNX
Bowling Green at Louisville | 6:30 p.m. | ACCNX
Sunday, Nov. 21 – Second Round
BGSU/Louisville at #15 Indiana | Noon
UC Santa Barbara/UCLA at #7 Duke | 1 p.m.
Campbell/Virginia Tech at #11 West Virginia | 1 p.m.
Loyola/North Carolina at #16 New Hampshire | 2 p.m.
Northern Illinois/Oakland at #5 Pitt | 4 p.m.
Vermont/Villanova at #4 Notre Dame | 5 p.m.
Mercer/Wake Forest at #13 FIU | 6 p.m.
Grand Canyon/Denver at #8 Clemson | 7 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 28 – Third Round
Campus Sites
Friday/Saturday, Dec. 3-4 – Quarterfinals
Campus Sites
Friday, Dec. 10 & Sunday, Dec. 12 – NCAA College Cup
WakeMed Soccer Park, Cary, N.C.
Noting ACC Men’s Soccer
• An ACC team has won the men’s national soccer championship 17 times, most of any conference.
• At least one ACC squad has reached the NCAA College Cup in 19 of the last 20 seasons, with 11 different league programs reaching the sport’s highest stage.
• Fifty-nine ACC teams have reached the NCAA College Cup all-time.
• The ACC had six teams among the top 25 in the NCAA’s final RPI, twice as many as any other conference. Duke, Notre Dame, Pitt and Clemson are Nos. 4, 5, 7 and 9, respectively. North Carolina is No. 20, while Virginia Tech is No. 24.
• Notre Dame won the 2021 ACC Championship on Sunday with a 2-0 victory over Duke. It marked the Fighting Irish’s first ACC crown in men’s soccer.
• Notre Dame is the fifth different school to win the ACC Championship in the last five years (2017-20: Wake Forest, Louisville, Virginia, Clemson).
• Five ACC teams are ranked in the latest United Soccer Coaches poll (Nov. 9), the most of any league.
• Pitt leads all ACC teams at No. 5 in the poll and is followed by Clemson (9), Duke (11), Notre Dame (20) and North Carolina (23).
• Five ACC teams rank among the top 20 nationally in scoring: Pitt (sixth, 2.47/game), Clemson (eighth, 2.44), Louisville (11th, 2.35), Notre Dame (16th, 2.25), Duke and Wake Forest (22nd, 2.11).
• ACC teams finished with a 66-22-6 record (.734) in non-conference play in the regular season, the second-best mark of any league nationally this season.