NAPERVILLE, Ill. – The St. Olaf College men's soccer team begins its second-straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament by taking on Lake Forest College in the opening round on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 8 p.m. at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium on the campus of North Central College.
St. Olaf (13-5-1) got into the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row by winning its third Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs title with a 2-1 win at fifth-ranked Gustavus Adolphus College last Saturday. The reward is a matchup with Midwest Conference Tournament champion Lake Forest (8-8-3) in the second game of the evening on Saturday.
Saturday's opening-round slate begins with host North Central (16-0-4) taking on the University of Wisconsin-Superior (16-3-2) at 5:30 p.m., followed by the Oles and Foresters at 8 p.m. The winners of Saturday's first-round games will play for a berth in the "Sweet 16" on Sunday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are sold on-site only and go on sale one hour before the first match of the evening. Ticket prices are $10 for adults and $5 for seniors/students/children ages 6-14. Children five and under get in free.
Live video and
live stats will be provided for all of the weekend's games.
St. Olaf is making the ninth NCAA Tournament appearance in program history (1984, 1992, 1998, 1999, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2021, 2022) and its back-to-back appearances mark just the second time that the Oles have competed in the national tournament in consecutive seasons. After matching its deepest-ever run in the tournament with a "Sweet 16" appearance last season, St. Olaf is 6-8 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. The Oles also advanced to the round of 16 in 2015 and have won at least one game in each of their last three berths.
Saturday night's matchup will be just the third-ever meeting between St. Olaf and Lake Forest and the teams have split the previous two encounters. The Oles won the most recent matchup, 2-1, at home on Aug. 30, 2008 after the Foresters claimed a 1-0 overtime victory on their home field on Oct. 23, 1994.
St. Olaf owns a 5-1-1 head-to-head record with UW-Superior and has won the last four meetings since 2012 by a combined score of 12-1. The Oles have only played North Central once previously, a 3-0 win in Naperville on Sept. 8, 1990.
HOW THEY GOT HERE
Head coach
Travis Wall's team earned its spot in the 64-team field by winning its third MIAC Playoffs title (2011, 2015, 2022) by downing previously-unbeaten Gustavus, 2-1, in St. Peter on Saturday. First year
Robi Buzakovic – the 2022 MIAC Playoffs MVP – scored his second goal of the game with 1:01 remaining to give the second-seeded Oles the one-goal win. The victory was St. Olaf's first against a top-five opponent since 1998.
Lake Forest backed up its Midwest Conference regular-season title by winning the conference tournament to earn its fourth NCAA appearance in the last 10 years and its sixth-ever berth (1975, 1980, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2022) in the national tournament. The Foresters scored with just 22.1 seconds remaining to claim a 2-1 win over Grinnell College in the championship game after scoring twice in the final minute of regulation – despite being down to nine players due to two red cards – on its way to an eventual 4-3 double-overtime victory over Knox College in the semifinals on Friday. The Foresters are 0-5 in their previous five NCAA Tournament appearances.
UW-Superior clinched its fifth-straight NCAA Tournament bid by winning its sixth-straight Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) title with a 3-0 shutout of Bethany Lutheran College on Saturday. The Yellowjackets had never appeared in the NCAA Tournament prior to 2017 and are 2-3-1 in their previous four berths, falling by a 1-0 score to Washington University in St. Louis in the opening round last season. UW-Superior enters the weekend riding a seven-game winning streak and has not allowed a goal in five of its last six games.
Prior to 2021, North Central had never appeared in the NCAA Tournament, but the Cardinals are in the field for the second consecutive season. Last year, North Central came to Northfield for the opening weekend and lost its first-round game to Loras College by a 2-1 score. This year, the Cardinals are one of five remaining undefeated teams entering the NCAA Tournament and were ranked No. 10 in the most recent United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division III Men's Top 25 poll. North Central booked its spot with a 3-2 victory over North Park University to win its second-straight College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) Championship.
