FULL NCAA RELEASE | REPLAY SELECTION SHOW | INTERACTIVE BRACKET
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – For the first time in 40 seasons, the New Haven men's soccer team will be playing for a national championship, earning one of 10 bids from Super Region 1 to the upcoming NCAA Division II National Championship Tournament. The Chargers will enter the six-round tournament as the No. 8 seed and will take on No. 9 seed Concord in the opening round on Friday.
New Haven and Concord will meet for the first time in the history of the two programs with the first-round match-up set to take place in Charleston, WV at Welch Athletic Complex, the home of the top seeded Charleson Golden Eagles. The winner of the first-round meeting between New Haven and Concord will advance to face the Golden Eagles on Sunday. Both the first and second round games are slated for 3:00 p.m. starts.
The Blue and Gold earned an at-large berth to the 2024 National Championship after recording a 12-4-3 overall record and advancing to the Northeast-10 Championship game for the first time in the history of the program. Under the direction of second-year head coach Tommy Matera, New Haven will look for the leadership of its senior leading scorer Pau Santanach (Barcelona, Spain/Collegi CreaNova) and graduate keeper Archie Watts (Bristol, England/SGS College) to make a run deep into the postseason. Santanach will enter the NCAA Tournament with eight goals on the season, while Watts sports an impressive 0.68 goals against average, surrendering just 12 goals through the entire season and registering nine shutouts on the year.
In its early years, the New Haven men's soccer team had a storied history in the NCAA Championship, finishing as the runner-up in 1976 and following that with a third place finish in 1977. They Blue and Gold would advance to the final four once more in 1984. Overall, the 2024 appearance is the ninth in program history with the Chargers sporting an 11-8 record in the previous nine appearances. In the most recent appearance, the Chargers advanced to the national semifinals with wins over Bridgeport in the first round and Tampa in the quarterfinals.
