NCAA Tournament 2025

[kansas hokie]

Emory is very used to the bus trip as they have had to make that same drive twice already in the NCAA tournament. Unlike all the others, Emory never played at home. Bus rides to Farmville, VA (Hampden-Sydney) and Lynchburg, VA (Lynchburg) for the first two weekends. Roanoke will be easier after all of that. Could be an advantage to be in a similar travel rhythm.

Here's a link to Emory men's soccer Instagram account where the important bit of info (as they are interviewed about their movie choices for the trip) is that it sounds like they are the only school that will be traveling to the Final Four by bus to Salem, VA.  That checks out since it is a 419 mile trip between Emory and Roanoke, but an approximately 6.5 hour bus ride (plus stops) doesn't sound like a ton of fun.  Sounds like they'll need more movies (or maybe some books too with finals coming up!)

[Kuiper]

NCAA Semifinal Preview Game #2

Emory (16-1-4)(NPI #5) v. Trinity (19-1-1)(NPI #12) on Friday, 12/5 at 6:30 PM EST @ Roanoke College/Salem, VA

Path to the Final Four

Emory:

Maryville 3-1 @ Hampden-Sydney
Hampden-Sydney 3-0 @ Hampden-Sydney
Rowan 2-0 @ Lynchburg
Dickinson 0-0 (4-5 in PKs) @ Lynchburg

Trinity:

Hardin-Simmons 5-0 @ Trinity
Texas Lutheran 2-0 @ Trinity
Wash. U. 3-0 @ Wash. U.
Augsburg 5-0 @ Wash. U.

A few things about this matchup that may only be of interest to me:

1.  Both teams are road warriors

Emory is the only team in the Final Four to get here entirely on the road, including beating Hampden-Sydney on its home field.  Maybe that's because Emory played a lot more games away from home than at home.  The last time Emory played a home game was October 26th.  In fact, Emory only played 6 home games all season, although it also played two teams at nearby Oglethorpe in neutral-site matches.  Emory was 7-0-2 in away games and 5-0-1 in neutral site games.  Of course, Emory is also used to long travel as part of being in the UAA, as this year it traveled to Waltham, MA, Pittsburgh, PA, Cleveland, OH, and Rochester, NY.  The trip to Salem, VA is comparatively a breeze.  Emory is the closest school to Roanoke College and, because it is under 500 miles, the only one that got here by bus.  No changing planes in Charlotte or Atlanta for the Emory players! 

Trinity played its first two games at home in the NCAA tournament, but unlike Emory, Tufts, and St. Olaf, it had to take a flight to its Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games.  It played considerably more home games than Emory, but it still went 6-0 in away games and 1-1-1 in neutral-site games.  Like Emory, it also beat Wash. U. on its home field in the Sweet 16.

2.  Emory might as well be the home team in Virginia.

It is the only team to play all of its NCAA tournament games in the state of Virginia - first two rounds at Hampden-Sydney, second two rounds at Lynchburg, and Final Four at Roanoke.  Plus, it's a Region VI school (so is Trinity supposedly because of its membership in the SAA, but United Soccer Coaches begs to differ).

3.  The South will rise again . . . maybe

The last time a team from the South won the D3 Men's Soccer Championship was . . . Trinity in 2003.

If you insist that Texas is not the "real" South despite being classified as the West South Central Division of the South by the U.S. Census Bureau, the last time a team from the South won the championship was 1994 when Bethany (W. Va.) won it.  And if you're not buying that even though West Virginia is classified as part of the South Atlantic Division of the South by the U.S. Census Bureau, then the last time was 1987 and UNC Greensboro.  Regardless of your personal definition, it's been a long time.  And if you agree that both Texas and Georgia are part of the South, then we are guaranteed to have a school from the South in the NCAA championship game for the first time since 2010 when Lynchburg lost to Messiah

4.  Statistical Twins

These two teams are very closely matched on several offensive and defensive stats

Goals scored (per game)/conceded (per game):

Trinity (59/2.81)/(12/0.57)
Emory (58/2.76)/(13/0.62)

Assists/opponent assists

Trinity 50/7
Emory 46/9

Corners taken/conceded

Trinity 160/42 
Emory 154/38

5.  Common opponents

Berry

Trinity won 4-1 (10/5) and tied 0-0 (Berry 5-3 on PKs) (11/7 in SAA Championship Game)
Emory won 3-1 (9/13)

Wash. U.

Trinity won 3-0 (11/22 in Sweet 16 @ Wash. U.)
Emory lost 0-1 (10/26 @ Emory)

6.  Players to watch

Emory

First team All Region VI forward/midfielder Ignacio Cubeddu (12g/6a) and 2nd team All Region VI midfielder Josh Grand (6g/10a) were the offensive leaders of the team this season, but Grand hasn't played since October 5th (making his stats all the more impressive).  Adeyemi Oni (7g/4a) often plays a lone striker and can beat defenders 1 v. 1, although he's been quiet in the playoffs.  1st team All Region defender Logan Sternen holding down the defense (although he has moved up to midfield in Grand's absence and also contributed six goals this year, including 2 in the tournament).  Goalkeeper Geoffrey Halpern has been tested in the tournament and has come up big. 

Trinity

On offense, 1st Team All Region X forward Samuel Theiss is the big scorer this season, with 15 goals, but felow 1st Team All Region X forward Adam Knutsen (8g/5a) is the fulcrum for a lot of the team's passing and movement in and around the box and on the wings.  They have a ton of crafty players.  Max Salinas, Julian Lopez, and Alex Ramirez are great ball carriers who can dribble through crowds in the middle of the field (especially Salinas), Zach Anderson is a great passer and playmaker, Alex Baltov can bring it up the wings.  On defense, 1st team All Region X defenders Luke Chandler and Daniel Urquidi are very solid and Cade Dougan is outstanding in front of them or joining them along with Luke Mayfield.  As with Emory's keeper, Jayden Schell has picked things up in the tournament run.

Overview

Big issue for Emory might be the team's depth, or lack thereof. They had 7 players play the full 110 against Dickinson, 2 more play 100, and one play 90.  They only used 4 subs, and really only relied upon 2 bench players with a third chipping in with 20 minutes and the fourth with 6.  That might have been because the coaching staff knew they had plenty of time to recover whether they won or lost, but they also only used 4 players (2 for less than 15 minutes) in its 2-0 win over Rowan. In close games, they just don't seem to trust a lot of players (or they don't have a lot of healthy players).

By contrast, Trinity's biggest strength might be its depth.  They can do line changes and not miss a beat and they have both young and experienced players to choose from. They often wear teams down mentally and physically with their possession game. 

The question is whether Trinity can stick with some of the most talented and physical players on counter attacks.  Trinity is really good at transition play off of a press, but that can leave them exposed in the back.  It will be interesting to see if both offenses come out flying or one or both teams start conservatively.