UCF Men’s Soccer Earns Championship, Bid to NCAA Tournament

Fresh off its eighth conference championship in school history, the UCF men’s soccer team is headed to the 2025 NCAA Tournament as one of the hottest teams in the nation, boasting an 8-1-2 record in its last 11 matches.

UCF will host Florida Atlantic in first round competition Thursday with the winner advancing to face 7^th-seeded Georgetown in the second round.

UCF earned the automatic bid to the postseason Sunday after securing its first Sun Belt Tournament championship in program history with a 3-1 win at Marshall. While the majority of UCF’s teams compete in the Big 12 Conference, the league does not sponsor men’s soccer as an affiliated sport. The men’s soccer team joined the Sun Belt in 2023.

The Knights are the only program in the state of Florida and one of 15 in the country to see both their men’s and women’s soccer programs advance to the 2025 NCAA Tournament. The women won their first-round matchup against Maine at home on Friday and now travel to Duke on Thursday for the second round at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+.

Road to the Championship

After a first-round win over Georgia Southern, the Knights toppled two nationally ranked opponents in their run to the top of the Sun Belt, besting No. 19 Kentucky and No. 12 Marshall for their second and third ranked wins of the season. This year marks the team’s first season in history with at least three top-25 ranked victories.

“How incredible this group of young men is — I could not be prouder. This group was 2-5-1 to start the season, and to end the season as Sun Belt Champions and win on the road and go through the teams we went through and then win at Marshall, what character this group has displayed,” head coach Scott Calabrese says. “It’s an incredible achievement, and we’ve put in a lot of work. The response from the team, the level went up from our players. They are determined to keep going.”

Heading into Sunday’s championship match at Marshall, the Thunder Herd had been defeated just twice all season, and not on their home turf since Nov. 26, 2023, a span of 721 days.

UCF’s win marked the fifth conference tournament title in program history, as well as the Knights’ eighth overall conference championship, and their first since 2020-21.