INDIANAPOLIS – Making its second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, Missouri State men’s soccer will face Maryland in a second-round matchup on May 2 in Wilmington, N.C. as the NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Committee announced the 36-team field on Monday afternoon.
The Bears, who captured both the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament championships, will make their fifth overall appearance in the NCAA Tournament after previous trips in 1997, 1999, 2009 and 2019.
After opening up its season with nine straight wins for the second consecutive year, MSU boasts an 11-1-0 overall record heading into the College Cup and is coming off a 1-0 win against Loyola in the MVC Championship on Saturday.
Maryland (4-4-2) is making its 20th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and have won four national championships with titles in 1968, 2005, 2008 and 2018. The Terps finished fourth in the Big Ten and fell to league champion Indiana in the conference tournament semifinals.
The 2020-21 NCAA Tournament opens up with a first round that will feature four “play-in” games, one for each region, and will take place on April 29 before second-round action begins on May 2.
The College Cup will culminate with the championship match on May 17 in Cary, N.C.
Missouri State won the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament match last season with a 1-0 victory over Denver which was played at Betty and Bobby Allison South Stadium. Overall, the Bears are 1-4 in tournament games with first-round losses to Saint Louis (1997, 2009) and UAB (1999) and a 2-1 overtime loss to UCF in the second round of the 2019 tournament.
The 36-team field is made up of champions from 22 conferences, who qualified automatically, in addition to 14 teams that were selected at-large. The top eight teams were all seeded for this year’s tournament that is taking place in Cary, North Carolina, and the surrounding area.
The Division I Men’s Soccer committee intends to provide some opportunity for family and friends to attend the championships. They will follow the NCAA Medical Advisory Group guidelines, and the maximum allowable capacity will be 25 percent.
