11/17/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
CONWAY - The Coastal Carolina men's soccer team and members of the media gathered in the team meeting room inside Adkins Field House on Monday to learn, with the rest of the nation, its first round opponent to the NCAA Championships by watching the national NCAA.com webcast. The verdict this year was the Atlantic Sun Conference Champion Florida Gulf Coast Eagles.
The match is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 20 at 6 p.m. on the Coastal Carolina University campus.
Tickets for the NCAA First Round are available by calling the CCU Athletics Ticket Office at 843-347-8499. Ticket prices are set for $7 for adults and $5 for youth (high school age and below). Coastal Carolina students will be admitted free with a valid CCU ID. Fans may purchase tickets at the South Ticket Booth at Brooks Stadium, beginning at 5 p.m. All tickets are general admission; bleachers are first-come, first-served.
The Chanticleers earned their NCAA Championship berth by claiming the Big South Conference tournament championship and the league's automatic bid with a 1-nil win over top-seeded Radford on Sunday. The tournament title was the 12th in program history.
Florida Gulf Coast punched its ticket to the Tournament with a 1-0 victory over North Florida in Sunday's Atlantic Sun Conference title match. The Eagles are 8-6-5 (4-1-1 Atlantic Sun) were the second seed in the A-Sun tournament and are unbeaten in their last four matches with four shutouts.
The Chanticleers own a 15-5-1 record and are ranked 25th nationally. This will be Coastal's 12th NCAA berth and the 10th under head coach Shaun Docking, who led the Chants to the NCAA postseason in 2001, `02, `03, `04, `05, `10, '11, '12 and `13. Thursday will mark the fourth straight and fifth overall time Coastal has hosted an NCAA Men's Soccer Championship match.
Last season, the Chanticleers hosted and defeated 2013 A-Sun champion East Tennessee State, 2-0, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Coastal then went on the road and upset 13th-seeded Charlotte by a 1-0 final in overtime before falling to fourth-seeded Cal in the round of 16.
Thursday's winner advances to face seventh-seeded Clemson in the second round on Sunday, Nov. 23.
