Westcott Field will see one more soccer game this season, as the SMU men’s soccer team will host San Francisco in the first round of the NCAA tournament this Friday or Saturday.
The Mustangs (10—5—3), who failed to advance from the first round of the C—USA tournament in a penalty kick shootout against Tulsa, were awarded an at—large bid for the tournament Monday afternoon. If they beat San Francisco (11—5—4), they would travel to California to take on UCLA (12—4—3) in the second round next Tuesday.
UCLA, the fifth—seeded team in the tournament, has a first round bye.
In the C—USA tournament, South Carolina (12—6—2) earned its first title by defeating the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (7—7—7) 1—0 at Westcott Field. The Gamecocks received an automatic NCAA bid for their win, and will face Wake Forest in the first round.
Junior forward Mike Sambursky scored the winning goal in the 41st minute when he beat Hurricane goalkeeper Dominic Cervi to a pass into the box. Senior Greg Reece assisted on the play.
Tulsa, who eliminated the Mustangs on penalty kicks in the first round of the tournament, out shot South Carolina 18—13 for the game but put only five shots on goal. The Golden Hurricane did not make the NCAA tournament.
There were no Mustangs on the All—Tournament team, which was dominated by players from Memphis, Tulsa and South Carolina.
However, SMU senior forward Duke Hashimoto was named C-USA player of the year. Senior midfielder David Chun, junior defender Jay Needham and Hashimoto were all selected as first team All-Conference players, while senior midfielder Kellan Zindel earned second team honors. Junior defender Mynor Gonzalez and freshman midfielder Bruno Guarda were selected to the third team.
Guarda, fellow midfielder Jeff Harwell and defenders Danny Lopez and Ryan Mirsky were all named to C—USA’s All—Freshman team.
