CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. — For the second-straight season, Campbellsville's Finley Stadium and Citizens Bank Field is playing host to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Men's Soccer Opening Round.
The 12
th-seeded Campbellsville Tigers are hosting Grand View University on Saturday, Nov. 19 with kickoff scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET.
Fans can follow along on the Campbellsville University Sports Network –
www.CampbellsvilleTigers.com/watch.
This year's opening round field includes 24 automatic qualifiers, six at-large selections and one host berth. Automatic berths were given to teams that either won their respective conference tournament title, regular-season championship or finished runner-up during the regular season or at the conference tournament. The at-large bids were determined by the final installment of the Modified Ratings Percentage Index (MRPI) announced Monday. The MRPI can be found
HERE. All win/loss/tie records for NAIA schools are through regular-season games played.
The 15 NAIA Opening Round winners will join Keiser in the Sunshine State for national championship final site action. The 16-team single-elimination event runs from Nov. 28 – Dec. 3 at the Seacrest Soccer Complex.
Campbellsville (15-0-3) currently hold the NAIA's longest unbeaten streak at 36 games (31-0-5). The streak by the Tigers the is fourth-longest in NAIA history – the next longest is a 41-gamer done by Hastings during the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons.
Campbellsville finished the regular season ranked No. 6 in the NAIA Coaches' Poll but was No. 12 in the Modified Ratings Percentage Index (MRPI). CU earned the Mid-South Conference's automatic bid to the Big Dance by defeating Lindsey Wilson College in a shootout, 5-3, in the conference tournament.
The Tigers have outscored opponents 74-6 this season, while freshman
Ignacio Mangada has led the offensive attack with 12 goals. Sophomore
Guilherme Fanck sits right behind Mangada with nine goals, while defender
Nathan Heath has scored eight and
Yudai Yamauchi has seven.
As a team, the Tigers rank No. 1 in the NAIA averaging 25.5 shots per game and 12.8 of those on goal. CU's 74 goals also ranks highly in the country at No. 6, while the Tigers average 4.1 goals per match (No. 4).
Individually, Mangada ranks No. 5 with six game-winning goals.
On the defensive side, the Tigers have one of the best back lines in the country. Led by defenders
Daniel Nimmo,
Rickard Hallin,
Gabriel DeFreitas and
Nathan Heath, CU has allowed just six goals this season.
Gonzalo Sapena has anchored the Tigers in goal and ranks No. 2 in goals against per game (0.360). As a team, Campbellsville leads the NAIA by averaging .780 shutouts per game and No. 2 in total shutouts with 14.
Grand View boats a 13-6 overall record and finished 7-4 inside the Heart of America Athletic Conference. The Vikings also qualified for the Opening Round by advancing on penalty kicks over Missouri Valley in the conference tournament.
The Vikings are led on the offensive side of the field by Bruno Henrique with 14 goals and Danton Irelan has 12. After Sam Blackman's nine scores, the Vikings scoring drops off with only 56 goals on the season.
Defensively, Darnell Larsen has started in 20 of the 21 games for Grand View, while allowing 1.13 goals per contest. Larsen also has piled up 65 saves and six shutouts this season.
