Cal Men’s Soccer road warriors earn a NCAA bid; rematch at UCSB in 1st round on Thu night

Those two late season road wins over Washington and Stanford did matter after all! Cal Men’s Soccer earns a NCAA postseason bid when the field of 48 was announced on Monday. Golden Bears earned one of the 24 at-large bids. Cal will be playing UCSB (the other big road win for the Bears this season) on Thursday at 7pm PT from Harder Stadium in Santa Barbara.

In the official Cal press release, Head Coach Kevin Grimes has the following to say about Cal’s inclusion in the NCAA tournament,

“We’re delighted to have been selected for NCAAs. Our team was in great form at the end of the season and playing extremely well the last 2-3 weeks. We had huge results against two outstanding teams, and ultimately, that had to play a big factor with us getting into the tournament.”

With an outstanding senior goalkeeper in Drake Callender (and a solid backup option in fellow senior Noah Texter), Golden Bears may just surprise people and make a deep run. Should the Bears make it past UCSB, 12th seed Saint Mary’s awaits in Moraga. Should the Bears make it past them somehow, they will likely have to face the 5th seed in Indiana.

Offensively, Golden Bears are led by junior Tommy Williamson who has a team high 9 goals. Williamson drew the penalty and converted it for the lone goal against Stanford in the regular season finale Big Clasico.

Washington as the 6th overall seed and Stanford as the 7th overall seed are the only other Pac-12 squads to make the field.

The 2019 Men’s College Cup (Men’s Soccer’s final four) will be hosted by Cary, North Carolina.

Congratulations to Kevin Grimes and his men on making it to the postseason. Now let’s go surprise the collegiate men’s soccer world some more.

GO BEARS!