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After beating Clemson 2-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship on Sunday, No. 3 Syracuse (14-2-4, 5-1-2 ACC) earned the No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. This is the highest seed the Orange have ever received following two seasons of missing the tournament.
The Orange have a bye in the first round and will host matches at SU Soccer Stadium up until the College Cup, which includes the semifinals and championship game. Those matches will be played in Cary, North Carolina, where the Orange won on Sunday.
Syracuse will play in the second round against either Penn or Rutgers on Nov. 20. In the third round, they could potentially face No. 14 Cornell, one of the two teams to defeat Syracuse this year.
The Orange started the year unranked after two disappointing seasons in ACC play. But buoyed by a few key transfers, the veteran squad started the year 7-0-1. The Orange beat then-No.1 Clemson and then-No. 4 Wake Forest, both on the road. They spent the past eight weeks in the top 10 of the United Soccer Coaches rankings. Syracuse was ranked third in last week’s poll and currently ranks first in RPI.
Syracuse won its first ACC Atlantic division title since 2014 and its first ACC Championship since 2015. After beating Clemson on Sunday, head coach Ian McIntyre himself revealed that he voted for defending national champion Tigers to win the conference title.
Last week, McIntyre received ACC Coach of the Year honors for the second time and SU had five players on the All-ACC teams. Transfer forwards Levonte Johnson and Nathan Opoku were named to the first team while Russell Shealy was named to the second team. Jeorgio Kocevski and Christian Curti were named to the third team.
Syracuse has made seven trips to the NCAA Tournament, including six times from 2012 to 2019. SU received its highest-ever seed (No. 6) and reached its only College Cup in 2015, where it lost to Clemson on penalty kicks in the semifinals.
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