FORT MYERS, Fla. – The postseason officially begins on Friday night as the third-seeded FGCU men's soccer team takes on sixth-seeded Bellarmine in the ASUN Championship Tournament quarterfinals. The Eagles and Knights will play the first of two matches hosted by second-seed Central Arkansas. The match will kick off at 6 PM (5 PM CT) and will be streamed live on
www.UCASports.com.
The Conway, Arkansas site will then see the winner of Bellarmine/FGCU take on the Bears in Sunday's ASUN Semifinal match. Lipscomb will host the other quarterfinal as fourth-seeded Stetson takes on fifth-seeded Liberty at 8 PM (7 PM CT). Lipscomb is the top-seed overall in the tournament with a bye into Sunday's semifinal round.
The ASUN Championship title match will be played on Saturday, Nov. 13 at the highest remaining seed. A pair of wins for FGCU coupled with a loss for Lipscomb in the semifinals would mean the Eagles would host the championship game at Pickering Field.
All-time, FGCU is 10-5-2 in ASUN postseason play and the Eagles have played for the league title six times with four titles (2011, 2012, 2014, 2016).
This will mark the second time FGCU and Bellarmine have met in the ASUN Tournament with the Green and Blue earning a 2-1 win over the Knights in last spring's semifinal.
The two sides met earlier this year in the regular season with
Markus Maurer's goal in the 68
th minute providing FGCU a 1-0 win. The Eagles dominated the match offensively with a 19-to-1 shot advantage which stood as the second-most of attempts of the season. That win sparked a stretch where FGCU won three of its final four regular-season matches to earn the third seed in the tournament.
FGCU is coming off a 2-1 win over Stetson last Saturday night at Pickering Field.
Aiden Jokomba (Anchovy St. James, Jamaica/Cornwall College) scored the game-winner less than two-minutes into overtime.
Marcos Da Paz (Recife, Brazil/Fayetteville Academy/Columbia International) put the Eagles up 1-0 in the 20
th minute before Stetson equalized in the 38
th minute.
In the brief series against Bellarmine, FGCU holds a 2-0 overall record.
For the season,
O'Vonte Mullings (Toronto, Ontario/Northview Heights) continues to pace the offense with a team-high six goals which ranks second-best in the league. Mullings also ranks sixth in the ASUN in points (13) for the year.
Jokomba became the second multi-goal scorer for FGCU after the Stetson game-winner, while five others have one for the year.
Mullings scored four in a one-week stretch to earn ASUN Player of the Week honors on Sept. 22. His six goals this season have moved him into second all-time at FGCU as he now has 27 in his four years passing Shak Adams who had 23 from 2016-19. He also now has 61 career points which puts him one shy of passing Adams (62) there as well. Albert Ruiz holds the FGCU career records for both goals (34) and points (76) from 2014-17.
Keeper
Gustavo Vasconcelos (Recife, Brazil/Colegio GGE) enters the match with a 1.63 goals-against-average and a 0.754 save percentage to go with three shutouts and a 4-5-0 record. He leads the league in saves (45), while ranking second in GAA and save percentage.
Mullings, Vasconcelos, and defender
Ethan Dudley (St. John's, Fla./Bartram Trail HS) were all honored to the All ASUN First Team on Thursday afternoon. Vasconelos was tabbed the league's Goalkeeper of the Year for the third time in four years, while Mullings became the first Eagle to earn first-team honors all four years of his career. Dudley was a selection to the ASUN All-Academic Team as well.
The Knights are led by the trio of Nate Girao, Juan Ballas, and Rikard Cederberg who were earned ASUN honors on Thursday. Girao and Ballas were selected to the All-ASUN Second Team, while Cederberg was honored on the All-Freshman Team.
For up-to-the-minute information and a behind-the-scenes look at the FGCU men's soccer program, follow on Twitter @FGCU_MSoccer, Instagram @FGCU_MSoccer, Facebook /FGCUMSoccer, and YouTube /FGCUAthletics. You can also sign-up to have news on FGCU men's soccer and all 15 sport programs delivered directly to your inbox by visiting
www.fgcuathletics.com/email.
HEAD COACH JESSE CORMIER
Jesse Cormier is in his fifth year as head coach of the FGCU men's soccer program in the fall of 2021 after being hired in January of 2017 to become just the 2nd head coach in program history. Cormier has guided FGCU to a 33-30-12 (.520) record overall, including an 19-9-4 mark (.656) in ASUN play. The Eagles have reached the ASUN Tournament semifinals for nine-straight seasons (every year of eligibility), as Cormier has coached 28 all-conference selections since his arrival (program-record 10 in 2017). Cormier was the head coach at his alma mater the University of Vermont for the previous 13 seasons. He won 14 games with the Catamounts in 2016 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament Second Round. During his time with Vermont, Cormier guided the program to the America East Tournament in 12 of 13 seasons, making five title game appearances, winning two tournament crowns, claiming a regular-season championship and advancing to three NCAA tournaments, including a pair of Second Round appearances. Cormier holds an overall 147-119-58 (.543) record as a head coach in his 16-plus seasons at the helm.
#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 85 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 14+ seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just nine seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 42 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 21, 2020-21), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2021) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as three of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors' Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.50 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 24 consecutive semesters. The 2019 Fall, 2020 Spring, 2020 Fall, and 2021 Spring semesters each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA in each. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 - being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
--FGCUATHLETICS.COM--
