Hope everyone had a good Veterans Day yesterday, and I’d like to belatedly thank all those who serve and have served for their service.
In addition to the super fun end of the week we Louisville City fans had enjoying our second title in a row, lots of local college soccer teams had plenty to celebrate, too.
- No. 10 UofL’s men knocked off consensus No. 1 Wake Forest en route to their first ever ACC tournament championship.
- No. 3 Kentucky’s men capped off their regular season Conference USA title with their first ever CUSA Tournament championship over No. 14 Charlotte (on Charlotte’s home field, no less).
- No. 2 Indiana won another Big Ten tournament title over Michigan.
- Centre’s women completed an undefeated season in Division III and earned a bye into the third round of that tournament.
Indiana’s a traditional power, so it’s fair to expect them to do well in the Big Ten. UofL, though, is a pretty incredible soccer story. They did well enough while still playing in Conference USA and the Big East, though neither conference has enjoyed much in the way of NCAA Tournament success. The ACC, though, is a very different story, with traditional powerhouses like Virginia, Clemson, Wake Forest, North Carolina and Duke. For UofL to be competitive in that league is impressive enough – to win titles is something else entirely. It’s a real testament to Ken Lolla and UofL athletics that they’ve had such success since joining the best soccer conference in the country.
Kentucky’s story is pretty neat in its own right. Conference USA is a middling soccer conference, and Kentucky was a middling program since joining that conference in 2004, having previously been in the MAC from the program’s inception as a varsity sport in 1995 (there is no men’s varsity soccer in the SEC). The Cats did well in the MAC and made the NCAA Tournament four times from 1999 to 2004, but weren’t facing good enough competition in the MAC to do well in the NCAA Tournament against better teams. Kentucky then switched conferences and hired Johan Cedergren as coach in 2011. He’s only led the team to NCAA Tournament appearances in now five of his seven seasons. This year, Kentucky seems primed to do something really special, having beaten Indiana and UofL, and earning the third overall seed in the tournament.
Centre’s women’s team probably doesn’t belong in Division III. They’ve only given up four goals in 21 games while scoring 72. Seventy. Two. Knockout soccer can be cruel, but it certainly doesn’t seem like this team can be stopped. They’ll play Wheaton on Friday in St. Louis.