Men's Soccer Makes NCAA Divison III Tournament

Men’s Soccer is going dancing!

The Ohio Wesleyan University men’s soccer team will be making its NCAA-record 45th Division III playoff appearance and its 51st overall NCAA playoff appearance. The Battling Bishops have won two national championships, in 1998 and 2011, and have appeared in 10 NCAA semifinals.

Photo by Ohio Wesleyan Athletics

After winning a share of the regular season title, and finishing with a 6-0-2 record, the Bishops fell to DePauw in a 2-1 overtime loss during the North Coast Atlantic Conference tournament semifinals. Although losing, the Bishop's strength of schedule and regular season title garnered them an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.

Senior Franklin Rodriguez leads the Bishops with nine goals this season, a career-high for him. Senior Jaggar Brooker follows right behind with eight goals and 12 assists setting another career high on this Bishops squad. Junior Christopher Guerra has totaled seven goals, scoring the lone goal for the Bishops in their loss against DePauw. Junior Sam Whitman has started all 18 games in goal for the Bishops, recording four shutouts on the season.

Photo by Paul Vernon

This will be Head Coach Jay Martin’s final trip to the NCAA Tournament and will continue his impactful legacy in college soccer.

The Bishops will face Catholic (D.C.) in a first-round game of the NCAA Division III tournament at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va. If they win they will move on to play the winner of the game between Mary Washington and William Peace (N.C.). The advancing teams will meet in a second-round game at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Catholic, who ended their season, 10-5-5, won the Landmark Conference championship, downing top-seeded Juniata, 2-1, in the championship game. The Cardinals finished second in the Landmark regular-season standings with a 5-0-4 record. Catholic is making its fourth consecutive NCAA Division III tournament appearance and its ninth overall appearance. Ohio Wesleyan and Catholic have previously met one time in the first round of the 2010 NCAA Division III tournament, when Ohio Wesleyan won by a 2-1 score in York, Pa.