The NCAA Men's Soccer Division I Championship heads into the Sweet 16 and three Sporting KC Academy players are still alive with their respective teams. The first weekend of the tournament saw upsets all over the bracket with Clemson (No. 8), Virginia (No. 11), Notre Dame (No. 12), Michigan (No. 13), Georgetown (No. 14), Dartmouth (No. 15) and VCU (No. 16) all falling to unseeded teams.
SKC Academy players had a front row seat to two of those upsets with Wes White and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers defeated Clemson 3-1 and Matthew Lewis (pictured, above) and the Fordham Rams knocking off ACC power Virginia 1-0. White did not feature for Coastal Carolina in the victory but Lewis payed 90 minutes as Fordham advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history.
Here are the happy highlights from Sunday's @FordhamSoccer win at Virginia (Courtesy of ACC Network Extra/ESPN/Virginia Athletics) pic.twitter.com/STZNSi42Dw
— Fordham Athletics (@FordhamRams) November 20, 2017
Elsewhere in the tournament, Zach Wright picked up another assist for the University of North Carolina as the Tar Heels defeated in-state foe UNC-Wilmington 2-1 to advance to their ninth Sweet 16 in the past 10 years. Wright is second on the team with 10 assists on the year in all competitions.
Pieters ⚽ & ⚽ Pineda find the net as the Tar Heels advance to round 3! pic.twitter.com/4guh0oOhu1
— UNC Men's Soccer (@UNCmenssoccer) November 20, 2017
The Tar Heels will now host an SMU team that upset Georgetown in the second round. A win could set up a potential match with Fordham who travel to play the Duke Blue Devils. On the other side of the bracket, Coastal Carolina has a tough road ahead with a matchup against two-time defending champion Stanford in Palo Alto.
