Following a 5-2 win over Fairleigh Dickinson, Maryland men’s soccer advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.
The Terps will travel to Ithaca to take on No. 14-seed Cornell on Sunday.
Despite not reaching the final round of the Big Ten Tournament, Maryland bounced right back and is still chasing its ultimate goal of winning its first national championship since 2018.
That quest got off to a good start Thursday when the Terps steamrolled FDU in the first round. The Terps scored two goals in the opening ten minutes –– Stefan Copetti in the second minute and Malcolm Johnston in the 10th –– and three in the first 25 en route to a comfortable victory.
The Knights struggled to break through the Terps’ elite backline anchored by senior defender Chris Rindov. Rindov mentioned that after the offense scored two early goals, the defense’s job was easy the rest of the night, just preventing any big plays. After notching zero shots on goal in the first half, FDU built up a bit more of an attack in the second, including two goals by freshman Matt Giraldo.
But the Terps outmatched the Knights in every way, pouring in goals and preventing them on the other end. FDU coach Seth Roland felt his team was outclassed athletically, talent-wise and skill-wise –– but still praised his team for the successful season, including a conference championship and an undefeated conference record.
The Terps will not have an easy path from here, going on the road for the remainder of their matches in the tournament. Maryland has found success on the road this year, boasting a 3-0-2 record, but going on the road in the NCAA Tournament is a different type of challenge.
“It’s difficult to win anywhere in college, it’s tough on the road, but we’ve been quite good on the road this year,” coach Sasho Cirovski said.
Cornell doesn’t have as rich of a soccer history as Maryland, failing to reach the tournament every year since 2012. The last time the Big Red made the second round of the tournament was 1977, and that was also the last time they won a game in the tournament.
Despite the history, Cornell saw itself have an extremely successful season under seventh-year coach John Smith. Smith has led the Big Red to three straight 10-win seasons for the first time in program history, and they placed top two in the Ivy League in both offense and defense this season.
The offensive leaders for Cornell are midfielder Brandon Morales and defender Kisa Kiingi, who place third and fifth in the conference in goals scored, respectively. Other contributors for the Big Red include forward Eneli Emeka and defender Connor Drought, who each have 14 total points on the season.
The Terps will be counting on their offensive leaders, including Johnston and Copetti, to produce offense on what will be an extremely cold afternoon.
With temperatures projected to be in the high 20s, the Terps will have to fight through tough weather conditions in upstate New York to move on to the next round.
“We’re excited for the challenge,” Cirovski said. “We know it’s going to be cold and we’ll be ready to embrace that challenge along with a really good Cornell team.”
The match begins at 2 p.m. and will take place in Ithaca, NY.
The winner of this match will take on the winner of Syracuse vs. Penn on either Nov. 26 or 27.
