2021 ACC men's soccer tournament explained

Year:2021
Conference:ACC
Gender:men's
Teams:12
Matches:11
Attendance:16,325
Venue:Campus Sites
Sahlen's Stadium
City:Cary, North Carolina
Champions:Notre Dame
Titlecount:1st
Coach:Chad Riley
Coachcount:1st
Mvp:Dawson McCartney
Mvpteam:Notre Dame
Broadcast:ESPNU (Final), ACC Network

The 2021 ACC men's soccer tournament was the 35th edition of the ACC Men's Soccer Tournament. The tournament decided the Atlantic Coast Conference champion and guaranteed representative into the 2021 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament. The final was played at Sahlen's Stadium in Cary, North Carolina.[1]

The Clemson Tigers were the defending champions, but were unable to defend their title, as they fell to Duke in the semifinals. Notre Dame won their first ACC title, by defeating NC State in the first round, Louisville on penalties in the quarterfinals, Pittsburgh in the semifinals, and Duke in the final, 2–0. It was also the first ACC title for head coach Chad Riley. Notre Dame was the 5 seed entering the tournament, and they became the lowest seeded team to win since Syracuse in 2015, who won as the 7th seed.

Qualification

See main article: 2021 Atlantic Coast Conference men's soccer season. All twelve teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference earned a berth into the ACC Tournament. The winners of each division, Atlantic and Coastal, will be seeds 1 and 2. The top 4 seeds received first round byes and hosted the winner of a first-round game. The remaining 10 teams in the conference will be seeded according to points awarded in conference matches. All rounds, with the exception of the final will be held at the higher seed's home field. Seeding is determined by regular season conference record.[2]

(*: division winners are automatically given the top two seeds).

SeedSchoolConference RecordPointsTiebreaker notes
1style=5–2–116*3–2 vs. Duke[3]
2style=5–315*5–1 vs Louisville[4]
3style=5–2–1162–3 vs Pittsburgh
4style=5–3151–5 vs. Clemson
5style=4–2–214
6style=4–3–113
7style=4–412
8style=3–3–110
9style=2–4–28
10style=2–5–173–1 vs. Virginia[5]
11style=2–5–171–3 vs. Syracuse
12style=1–5–25

Bracket

Matches

Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

All-Tournament team

Player Team
2021 ACC Men's Soccer All-Tournament team[7]
Bryan DowdNotre Dame
Jack Lynn
Dawson McCartney
Philip Quinton
Shakur MohammedDuke
Peter Stroud
Thorleifur Úlfarsson
Oskar ÅgrenClemson
Quinn McNeill
Valentin NoëlPittsburgh
Arturo Ordoñez
MVP in Bold

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2021 Men's Soccer Championship. 2021-10-26. theacc.com. en.
  2. Web site: ACCMSoccerChampSeedingLanguage (PDF) – Atlantic Coast Conference. 2021-10-26. theacc.com. en.
  3. Web site: Men's Soccer vs Duke on 10/9/2021 – Box Score. 2021-10-30. Pitt Panthers #H2P. en.
  4. Web site: Louisville vs. Clemson box score – 10/29/2021. live. clemsontigers.com. https://web.archive.org/web/20211030182008/https://clemsontigers.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/CU102921.pdf . 2021-10-30 .
  5. Web site: Men's Soccer vs Virginia on 9/10/2021 – Box Score. 2021-10-30. Syracuse University Athletics. en.
  6. Web site: 2021 ACC Men's Soccer Championship. theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. October 27, 2021.
  7. Web site: Notre Dame Wins 2021 ACC Men's Soccer Championship, 2-0, Over Duke. theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. November 14, 2021. November 15, 2021.