Semifinal Rematch

SoCon Championship Semifinal
#4 Belmont (12-4-1) at #1 UNC Greensboro (13-3-1) | Sunday, Nov. 7 | 5:00 p.m. CT
Greensboro, North Carolina | UNCG Soccer Stadium
ESPN+ | Live Stats | Match Notes

SoCon Championship Bracket | Championship Central

GREENSBORO, N.C. – For the second time in program history, the Belmont University men's soccer team will face the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the Southern Conference Championship semifinals. The fourth-seeded Bruins are set to take on the top-seeded and 25th-ranked Spartans of UNC Greensboro Sunday evening at UNCG Soccer Stadium in North Carolina. Kickoff of the SoCon Men's Soccer Championship semifinal match is slated for 5 p.m. CT/6 p.m. ET.

It marks the third-straight season Belmont (12-4-1) has met the Spartans (13-3-1) in the SoCon Championship in Greensboro.

The conference tournament semifinal match will be broadcast on ESPN+ with live in-game statistics available via UNCGSpartans.com. Admission to UNCG Soccer Stadium is free.

What's Bruin

• After completing the month of October 6-1, the Bruins continued their winning ways Friday evening at UNCG Soccer Stadium with a 1-0 win over fifth-seeded East Tennessee State University in the SoCon Championship quarterfinal round.
• The victory marked Belmont's 12th of the fall, the most in a single season in school history. The Bruins went 11-8-2 in their only other 11-win campaign in 2008.  
• Playing in its third consecutive SoCon Men's Soccer Championship semifinals, Belmont enters Sunday having gone 12-2-1 over its last 15 matches.
• With their triumph Friday against the Buccaneers, the Bruins improved to 2-0 in SoCon Championship quarterfinal matches.
• Belmont is 4-3 all-time in the SoCon Men's Soccer Championship.
• Once again relying on their superb defensive play Friday evening, the Bruins claimed their program record ninth shutout of the season.
• Backed by two-time defending SoCon Defensive Player of the Month Drew Romig in front of the net, Belmont ranks among the top teams in the nation in several defensive categories. The Bruins are third nationally in save percentage (.845) and 13th in both shutout percentage (.529) and team goals against average (.739).
• Since joining the league in 2018, Belmont has gone 1-1 in its previous two SoCon Championship semifinal matches. In 2019, the Bruins were edged 3-2 in overtime at UNC Greensboro before reaching their first SoCon Championship title match at the end of the unique 2020-21 spring season with a 3-1 upset of top-seeded and 25th-ranked Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.
• Sophomore midfielder AJ Chastonay provided the lone goal in Friday's SoCon Championship quarterfinal win, finding the back of the net with his left foot in the 18th minute. The game winner was his nation-leading seventh of the season.
• Senior forward Niccolo Dagnoni, a two-time All-SoCon First Team selection, was credited with the assist on Chastonay's goal after driving the ball up the field and passing it ahead. Earning his ninth assist of the fall, Dagnoni set the program's single-season assist record. He is only one assist shy of tying Nico Olsak (2010-13) for the most ever by a Belmont player with 24 career helpers. Dagnoni owns a team-best 19 points on the season and 58 for his four-year career, the second-most points ever by a Bruin. The Milan, Italy, striker is also tied for the third-most goals in program history with 17 career goals, five of which have come this year.
• No surprise, Romig was phenomenal between the posts in Friday's match versus ETSU. The senior goalkeeper made six saves against the Buccaneers and extended the program's individual single-season shutout record with his eighth clean sheet of the fall. Romig ranks among the top goalies in the nation in several statistical categories, including ranking fourth in the country in save percentage (.843), sixth in shutouts, and 14th in both goals against average (0.75) and saves (70).
• Friday's neutral-site win over ETSU was just Belmont's third victory away from Nashville this season. The Bruins are 2-4-1 in true road matches in 2021.
• Scoring 19 goals across its last eight matches, Belmont has had seven different players find the back of the net with Chastonay (5), sophomore forward Esteban Leiva (1), senior forward Liam O'Brien (6), sophomore midfielder Michael Saunders (1), senior midfielder/defender Esteban Lestido (1), sophomore defender Case Cox (3) and Dagnoni (2) all registering at least a goal since the start of October.
• On Thursday morning, head coach David Costa was tabbed SoCon Co-Head Coach of the Year alongside UNC Greensboro head coach Chris Rich.
• Six different Bruins earned All-SoCon distinction Thursday morning with Dagnoni landing a spot on the first team, while O'Brien, Chastonay, senior defenders John Bannec and Jack Shaw, and Cox were all named All-SoCon Second Team.
• Sunday evening will represent the eighth all-time meeting between Belmont and the Spartans with UNC Greensboro holding a 5-1-1 advantage in the series.
• The Bruins captured their first-ever win against the then 16th-ranked Spartans, 2-1, on Saturday, Oct. 16 in the Music City. The senior day triumph was historic as it was the highest-ranked opponent Belmont had ever defeated at home.
• Handing UNC Greensboro its only SoCon loss during the regular season, the Bruins completed the fall an unblemished 9-0 at home while extending Belmont's program record win streak at E.S. Rose Park to 10.
• After O'Brien headed in an equalizing goal off his own rebound in the 53rd minute, Chastonay scored the game winner in the 81st minute.
• The last five meetings between the Bruins and Spartans on the soccer pitch have been decided by a single goal. In last season's SoCon Championship title match, UNC Greensboro scored the lone goal of the contest in the 80th minute. During the 2020-21 regular season matchup between the two squads in North Carolina, UNC Greensboro found the back of the net in the 99th minute after Belmont held a 2-1 lead through 75 minutes of play courtesy of goals by senior midfielder Kyle Barks and Shaw.   
• When the two teams last faced each other in the SoCon Championship semifinals in 2019, the Spartans came back from a 2-0 deficit and notched the game winner just after the 96-minute mark in overtime. UNC Greensboro collected a 2-1 win over the Bruins at Rose Park during the 2019 regular season, despite Barks giving Belmont a 1-0 lead in the 51st minute.
• In 2018, the Bruins played the host Spartans to a 2-2 draw at UNCG Soccer Stadium following a pair of second-half goals from senior forward Ares Marlonsson.
• On Tuesday, Sept. 28, Belmont President Dr. Gregory Jones announced Belmont would be joining the Missouri Valley Conference as its 11th member institution. The Bruins will begin competition in the MVC in the fall of 2022. The MVC is comprised of Missouri State, Loyola University Chicago, SIUE, Drake, Bradley and Evansville for men's soccer. Belmont will make up the seventh member in the league.
• It will be a return to the MVC for the Bruins in men's soccer as Belmont spent the 2000 season as an affiliate league member.

About the Spartans

• UNC Greensboro has won four straight since its loss to the Bruins.
• The Spartans' only other two defeats on the year came at home, 3-1 versus Campbell in UNC Greensboro's season opener and 2-1 in overtime against Saint Joseph's University on Sept. 5.
• With one of the most prolific offenses in the nation, the Spartans took down then No. 2 Clemson 3-1 in Greensboro on Sept. 21.
• UNC Greensboro leads all of NCAA Division I men's soccer in goals (51), points (149), goal differential (39) and points per match (8.76), while second nationally in assists (47) and third in corner kicks per outing (7.29).
• Sweeping the league's yearly individual superlatives, the Spartans feature SoCon Player of the Year Theo Collomb, SoCon Goalkeeper of the Year Niclas Wild and SoCon Freshman of the Year J.C. Ngando.
• Sophomore forward Collomb, midfielder Ngando, sophomore defender Emmanuel Hagan, senior defender Marco Milanese, junior defender Matthew Skinner and sophomore Wild all landed spots on the All-SoCon First Team. Freshman midfielder Jack Birch and sophomore midfielder Daniel Mangarov are both All-SoCon Second Team picks, while Birch, Ngando and Skinner, along with midfielder Basile Marc, also claimed SoCon All-Freshman Team recognition.
• Collomb ranks among the top players in the country in several categories, including leading the nation in goals (15) and points (35). He is third nationally in both goals (0.94) and points per match (2.19), seventh in shots per contest (4.06) and 12th in shots on goal per game (1.88).

Up Next

Belmont is attempting to make its second-straight SoCon Men's Soccer Championship title match and would get there with a win Sunday evening. Second-seeded Mercer University (8-7-1) hosts third-seeded Furman (7-8-1) Sunday at 1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET in Macon, Georgia, in the other SoCon Championship semifinal. Should the Bruins emerge victorious, Belmont would play the winner next weekend on either Saturday, Nov. 13 or Sunday, Nov. 14.  

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