NCAA Championship Bracket
INDIANAPOLIS – For the second straight year with a national championship offered, Cedarville’s men’s soccer program carved out first-round advancement, this time over a familiar league member in the NCAA Super Region Three quarterfinals.
In 2019, The Yellow Jackets were one of four national championship qualifiers from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference in the 10-team bracket and advanced against Wisconsin-Parkside on PK’s in a shootout.
This year for the Great Midwest, the No. 8 seeded Yellow Jackets moved on in regulation at the expense of conference tournament runner-up and No. 9 seed Ohio Dominican.
It was a gritty playoff performance by both programs, who were playing each other for the fourth time in 2021 after receiving the draw on Monday night during the NCAA Selection Show. Both programs received at-large selections as Lake Erie finished off the tournament run with an automatic qualifier spot for the No. 2 seed and bye.
Cedarville won by a final score of 1-0 over Ohio Dominican to move into the next round on Saturday against Super Region Three host and No. 1 seed/No. 7 nationally ranked UIndy. That matchup is set for a noon ET start time.
Goalkeeper Jared Zacharias made six saves for the shutout effort as the Panthers moved all 11 on the field forward in the final minute to try and tie the game.
The goal was credited to Mark Rowan, who found some open space from the top of the penalty area on UIndy’s turf surface. The assist was assigned to Andy Volk as the Yellow Jackets improved to 14-4-1. ODU’s season concluded with a record of 11-7-3.
Ohio Dominican and Cedarville both split their meetings this year, 2-2. ODU had previously eliminated Cedarville from the conference tournament in the semifinals, also by a 1-0 count on the scoreboard.
Lake Erie learned it will host No. 7 seed Lewis from the Great Lakes Valley Conference on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET. The Flyers defeated No. 10 seed Davenport in Thursday’s contests. The 4/5 an 3/6 matchups between Illinois Springfield/Maryville and Wisconsin-Parkside/Fort Hays State will be conducted on Sunday the 21st.