WASHINGTON – The 13th-seeded Georgetown University men's soccer squad will host the Michigan State University Spartans on Sunday afternoon in the third round of the NCAA Tournament at Shaw Field at 1 p.m. The Hoyas are 13-4-3 on the season after earning a bye in the first round of the tournament and defeating West Virginia 1-0 on Sunday.
Junior defender
Dylan Nealis (Massapequa, N.Y. / Massapequa) scored a goal in the 88th minute to defeat WVU in the NCAA Second Round at Shaw Field. The Blue & Gray held a 28-11 advantage in shots and took eight corner kicks to WVU's one. Sophomore
Ethan Koehler (Maplewood, N.J. / Columbia) took the shutout win in the net with five saves on the afternoon.
Georgetown's NCAA Tournament berth is the seventh under Head Coach
Brian Wiese who managed his 150th career victory earlier this postseason. The Hoyas have been to the tournament on eight previous occasions with six trips to the Round of 16 (2018, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 1997) and two to the quarterfinals (2014, 2012). It marks GU's seventh tournament berth in the past nine seasons.
In 2012, the squad was the national runner up, falling to Indiana 1-0 in the national championship game. Prior to that season, the program had never moved beyond the second round of the tournament with previous appearances in 2010, 1997 and 1994. The Hoyas are 9-5-5 overall in the NCAA Tournament.
To get here, the squad made history winning the first back-to-back BIG EAST Championships in program history with a 2-0 victory over the Marquette Golden Eagles at Shaw Field. Georgetown is now the only school in BIG EAST soccer history where its men's and women's teams have won back-to-back championships. The win gave the Hoyas their third tournament title for the program. The Blue & Gray has been in and out of the national polls all season. The team was No. 12 in the United Soccer Coaches' Poll and Georgetown moved to No. 15 in TopDrawerSoccer.com's poll.
The Hoyas have received a number of accolades this season with the squad earning one of the BIG EAST's top awards.
Nealis was named the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year as seven different Hoyas earned BIG EAST season honors. Nealis joined sophomore forward
Derek Dodson (Aurora, Ill. / Waubonsie Valley) and junior forward
Achara (Enugu, Nigeria / Berkshire School [Mass.]) on the first team, while senior captains
Brendan McDonough (Matthews, N.C. / Charlotte Catholic) and
Kyle Zajec (Westport, Conn. / Staples) were each named to the second team. Goalkeeper
Giannis Nikopolidis (Athens, Greece / Nea Genia Zirdi) joined classmate
Sean Zawadzki (Olmsted Falls, Ohio / Olmsted Falls) on the BIG EAST All-Freshman team.
Dodson is leading the team in scoring with 19 points on nine goals and one assist for the year. Zajec is second with four goals and seven assists for 15 points, while
Achara has seven goals and one assist for 15 points as well. Nealis rounds out the top four with a two goals and a team-high seven assists for 11 points on the year. Nikopolidis has played in 16 games and tallied 55 saves with a 0.71 GAA, Koehler has played in three games with 15 saves and a 0.32 GAA.
An overtime goal by John Freitag in the 93rd minute sent Michigan State (12-4-4) to the NCAA Third Round for the second time in as many seasons with a 2-1 win over fourth-seeded Louisville on Sunday in Louisville, Kentucky. MSU defeated the University of Illinois-Chicago, 2-0, in the first round of the tournament. The Spartans are 28-14-5 in NCAA Tournament play.
The Hoyas are 2-1 all-time against the Spartans with the last meeting coming at Shaw Field in the 2013 NCAA Third Round. In that game, the Spartans managed a goal in the 28th minute to bounce the Blue & Gray from the tournament. The other home matchup was a 4-0 GU win in the District in the 2010 season.
Live stats and a free webcast featuring Dan Helfrich and Tom Greaser will be available at
www.GUHoyas.com. Tickets can be purchased at WeAreGeorgetown.com, Georgetown student admission will be free with a valid GoCard.
