2022 Sun Belt Conference men's soccer tournament
American college soccer postseason tournament
| 2022 Sun Belt Conference men's soccer tournament | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classification | Division I | ||||
| Teams | 8 | ||||
| Matches | 7 | ||||
| Site | Lexington, KY Huntington, WV | ||||
| Champions | Kentucky (1st title) | ||||
| Winning coach | Johan Cedergren (1st title) | ||||
| MVP | Clay Holstad (Kentucky) | ||||
| Broadcast | ESPN+ | ||||
| |||||
| Conf | Overall | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | W | L | T | W | L | T | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 6 Kentucky‡ | 5 | – | 0 | – | 3 | 15 | – | 1 | – | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 12 Marshall+ | 4 | – | 1 | – | 3 | 11 | – | 4 | – | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Georgia State | 4 | – | 2 | – | 2 | 12 | – | 4 | – | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| West Virginia | 3 | – | 1 | – | 4 | 7 | – | 7 | – | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coastal Carolina | 2 | – | 1 | – | 5 | 5 | – | 5 | – | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Old Dominion | 3 | – | 4 | – | 1 | 6 | – | 8 | – | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| James Madison | 2 | – | 3 | – | 3 | 8 | – | 8 | – | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| South Carolina | 1 | – | 4 | – | 3 | 5 | – | 8 | – | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Georgia Southern | 0 | – | 8 | – | 0 | 1 | – | 14 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rankings from United Soccer Coaches Source: Sun Belt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 2022 Sun Belt Conference men's soccer tournament was the 27th edition of the Sun Belt Conference Men's Soccer Tournament. The tournament ran from November 6 to November 13, 2022. Kentucky won the Sun Belt Conference (SBC) tournament and with it the SBC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division I National Tournament.
The conference announced the top two seeds would host the quarterfinals and semifinal rounds, and then the highest remaining seed in the finals would host the finals. #1 seed Kentucky and #2 seed Marshall earned the right to host the first two rounds of the tournament.
Background
The Sun Belt shuttered its men's soccer league after all of its members moved the sport to other conferences by the end of the 2020–21 school year. The conference had lost one men's soccer team before the season when full conference member Appalachian State dropped men's soccer in May 2020, citing financial impacts from COVID-19.[1] That July saw associate member Howard announce that it would become an associate member of the Northeast Conference in six sports, with men's soccer being one of four sports moving in July 2021.[2] In January 2021 the ASUN Conference announced three schools as incoming full members, including Sun Belt men's soccer associate Central Arkansas.[3] The following month saw full Sun Belt member Coastal Carolina announce that it would become a single-sport member of Conference USA, joining another in-state associate member in South Carolina.[4] This left Georgia Southern and Georgia State, both full Sun Belt members, as the conference's only remaining men's soccer programs, and those two schools announced they would move that sport to the Mid-American Conference in late May 2021.[5]
However, following a major conference realignment that brought three new men's soccer schools (James Madison, Marshall, and Old Dominion) to the conference, SBC commissioner Keith Gill announced on November 1, 2021 that men's soccer would be reinstated no later than 2023.[6] With all three schools joining in 2022 instead of the originally intended 2023 timeline, the SBC announced on April 6, 2022 that men's soccer would instead return in 2022 with Kentucky, South Carolina, and West Virginia as affiliate members.[7]
Seeds
| Seed | School | Conference | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kentucky | 5-0-3 | 18 |
| 2 | Marshall | 4-1-3 | 15 |
| 3 | Georgia State | 4-2-2 | 14 |
| 4 | West Virginia | 3-1-4 | 13 |
| 5 | Coastal Carolina | 2-1-5 | 11 |
| 6 | Old Dominion | 3-4-1 | 10 |
| 7 | James Madison | 2-3-3 | 9 |
| 8 | South Carolina | 1-4-3 | 6 |
Bracket
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Kentucky | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 8 | South Carolina | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Kentucky | 3 | |||||||||||||
| West Virginia | 0 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Coastal Carolina | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | West Virginia | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Kentucky | 2 | |||||||||||||
| James Madison | 0 | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Marshall | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 7 | James Madison | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Georgia State | 0 | |||||||||||||
| James Madison | 5 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Georgia State | 3 | ||||||||||||
| 6 | Old Dominion | 1 | ||||||||||||
Schedule
Quarterfinals
| #4 West Virginia Mountaineers | 1–0 | #5 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers |
|---|---|---|
Attendance: 576
| #2 Marshall Thundering Herd | 0–1 | #7 James Madison Dukes |
|---|---|---|
Attendance: 1402
| #1 Kentucky Wildcats | 2–1 | #8 South Carolina Gamecocks |
|---|---|---|
Attendance: 1499
| #3 Georgia State Panthers | 3–1 | #6 Old Dominion Monarchs |
|---|---|---|
Attendance: 1402
Semifinals
| #1 Kentucky | 3–0 | #4 West Virginia |
|---|---|---|
Attendance: 1,677
| #7 James Madison | 5–0 | #3 Georgia State |
|---|---|---|
Attendance: 389
Final
| #1 Kentucky | 2–0 | #7 James Madison |
|---|---|---|
Attendance: 2,389
Statistics
Goalscorers
TBD
Honors
All Tournament Team
TBA
References
- ^ "App State drops men's soccer and two other men's programs". Soccer America. May 26, 2020. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
- ^ "Six Howard Athletics Programs Join the Northeast Conference as Associate Members" (Press release). Howard Bison. July 6, 2020. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
- ^ "ASUN Conference Announces Three New Institutions; Adds Football as 20th Sport" (Press release). ASUN Conference. January 29, 2021. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
- ^ "Coastal Carolina Added as Men's Soccer Member" (Press release). Conference USA. February 25, 2021. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
- ^ "Georgia Southern, Georgia State Added As Affiliate Members in Men's Soccer" (Press release). Mid-American Conference. May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
- ^ Traylor, Grant (November 1, 2021). "Sun Belt confirms men's soccer being reinstated". The Herald-Dispatch. Huntington, WV. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
- ^ "Sun Belt Conference Announces Return of Men's Soccer This Fall" (Press release). Sun Belt Conference. April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
External links
- Sun Belt Tournament
