2018 NCAA Division I men's soccer season

The 2018 NCAA Division I men's soccer season was the 60th season of NCAA championship men's college soccer. The regular season began on August 24, 2018 and continued into the first weekend of November 2018. The season culminated with the four-team College Cup at Meredith Field at Harder Stadium in Santa Barbara, California, December 7–9, 2018. There were 206 teams in men's Division I competition. The Maryland Terrapins won their fourth NCAA title, defeating the Akron Zips 1–0.

Changes from 2017

Coaching changes

New programs

reinstated their men's soccer program, which had been dormant since the end of the 2012 season, for the 2018 season.
The California Baptist Lancers began the transition from Division II to Division I and the Western Athletic Conference in 2018–19.
The UC San Diego Tritons will begin the transition from Division II to Division I and will join the Big West Conference in 2020–21.
The Merrimack Warriors will begin the transition from Division II to Division I and will join the Northeast Conference in 2019–20.

Discontinued programs

, the only Division III school competing in Division I men's soccer for some years moved to Division III with the school's other sports.
Despite the program's many successes, the University of New Mexico's Board of Regents, for economic reasons, voted to discontinue the men's soccer program, along with three other sports teams, after the 2018 season.

Conference realignment

NOTE 1: The Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners will move from the Western Athletic Conference to the Big West Conference on July 1, 2020.
NOTE 2: The team formerly known as the Fort Wayne Mastodons officially changed its athletic identity to the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons on June 18, 2018, shortly before the creation of Purdue University Fort Wayne. Previously, the PFW athletic program represented Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne, but the Indiana University and Purdue University systems agreed to dissolve IPFW on July 1, 2018, with each system establishing a separate Fort Wayne campus. The IPFW athletic program transferred to PFW, representing only that institution, and remains a member of Division I and the Summit League.
NOTE 3: After six years of divisional play, with home-and-home series within the divisions, the Big West Conference teams will be playing a single, eight-team, seven game schedule. This move comes two years before Cal State Bakersfield moves in to make the Big West a nine team league.
NOTE 4: Central Arkansas announced on September 6 that its men's soccer program would leave its associate membership in the Missouri Valley Conference after the 2018 season and join the Sun Belt Conference as an Associate Member.

Season overview

Pre-season polls

Regular season

The regular season began on August 24, 2018 and ended in early November 2018.

Headlines

October 3 – Long Island University announced that its two current athletic programs—the Division I LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and the Division II LIU Post Pioneers—would merge into a single Division I athletic program under the LIU name after the 2018–19 school year. The unified program, which will maintain LIU Brooklyn's Division I and Northeast Conference memberships, will announce a new nickname at a later date. With both campuses sponsoring men's soccer, the two teams will become a single LIU team based at the Post campus in Nassau County, New York in the 2019 season.
#1

Conference standings

Major upsets

In this list, a "major upset" is defined as a game won by a team ranked 10 or more spots lower or an unranked team that defeats a team ranked #15 or higher.
All rankings are from the United Soccer Coaches Poll.

Date	Winner	Score	Loser
08/24	Providence	2–1	@ #8 SMU
08/24	@ Creighton	2–0	#11 Clemson
08/24	@ Grand Canyon	2–0	#12 Wisconsin
08/27	NC State	2–0	@ #4 Akron
08/27	Drake	2–1	@ #9 Butler
08/27	@ DePaul	1–0	#14 Western Michigan
09/01	San Francisco	1–0	@ #8 UCLA
09/04	@ Kentucky	3–0	#7 Louisville
09/07	Fairfield	2–1	@ #9 UNC Wilmington
09/07	@ Seattle	2–1	#14 Akron
09/14	@ #20 Portland	1–0	#9 Washington
09/14	@ Stanford	1–0	#15 UMass Lowell
09/18	Georgetown	1–0	@ #9 Duke
09/21	@ Rutgers	2–1	#5 Michigan State
09/25	@ Pitt	3–1	#12 NC State
09/30	Wisconsin	1–0	@ #5 Michigan State
10/05	@ Syracuse	2–0	#1 Wake Forest
10/05	@ Cal State Bakersfield	1–0	#7 Air Force
10/07	@ FIU	3–2	#4 Kentucky
10/09	Akron	2–1	@ #8 Michigan State
10/11	@ Oregon State	1–0	#10 Stanford
10/12	@ NC State	1–0	#1 North Carolina
10/16	@ Maryland	1–0	#7 Denver
10/16	@ Akron	1–0	#8 Creighton
10/16	Lipscomb	3–2	@ #10 Louisville
10/16	High Point	1–0	@ #14 Duke
10/24	Coastal Carolina	2–1	@ #10 UNC Wilmington
10/26	@ San Francisco	2–1	#7 Portland
10/28	@ Grand Canyon	1–0	#8 Air Force
10/31	Pitt	2–0	@ #7 Virginia
10/31	Georgetown	2–1	@ #14 Creighton
11/03	@ Pacific	3–2	#11 Portland
11/08	California	1–0	@ #6 Stanford
11/09	Marshall	2–1	#3 Kentucky
11/09	Akron	3–1	@ #12 West Virginia
11/09	Grand Canyon	1–0	#13 Air Force

Early season tournaments

Several universities hosted early season soccer tournaments.

Name	Dates	Stadium	City	No. teams	Champion
Carolina Nike Classic	August 24–26	UNCG Soccer Stadium	Greensboro, NC	4	Wake Forest
Fairfield Inn by Marriot JMU Invitational		University Park	Harrisonburg, VA	4	Virginia Tech
John Rennie Nike Invitational	August 24–26	Koskinen Stadium	Durham, NC	4	Duke
HBU Invitational	August 24–26	Sorrels Field	Houston, TX	4	Houston Baptist
Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament		Alumni Stadium	Notre Dame, IN	4
Mike Gibbs Memorial Tournament		Hodges Stadium	Jacksonville, FL	4
Nike/Aaron Olitsky Memorial Soccer Classic		Patriots Point Athletics Complex	Mount Pleasant, SC	4
VCU Tournament	August 24–26	ODU Soccer Complex	Norfolk, VA	4	Georgia Southern Old Dominion
Wolstein Classic	August 24–26	Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium	Columbus, OH	4	Dayton
Adidas/IU Credit Union Classic	August 31–Sept 2	Bill Armstrong Stadium	Bloomington, IN	4	Indiana
UTRGV Invitational	August 31–Sept 2	UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex	Edinburg, TX	4	Purdue Fort Wayne
Chicago Classic		Loyola Soccer Park & Wish Field	Chicago, IL	4
The Grange & Ashwill Memorial Invitational		UNM Soccer Complex	Albuquerque, NM	4
The Hotels at Grand Prairie Classic		Shea Stadium	Peoria, IL	4
Johann Memorial Classic		Peter Johann Memorial Field	Las Vegas, NV	4
The Courtyard by Marriott Central San Diego Tournament		SDSU Sports Deck	San Diego, CA	4
NIU/Adidas Invitational		NIU Soccer and Track & Field Complex	DeKalb, IL	4
ProRehab Aces Soccer Classic		Arad McCutchan Stadium	Evansville, IN	4
R.I. Capital City Classic		Chapey Field at Anderson Stadium	Providence, RI	4
The TLC Plumbing and Utility Invitational		UNM Soccer Complex	Albuquerque, NM	4
UAB Soccer For A Cure Classic		BBVA Compass Field	Birmingham, AL	4
UNCW Courtyard by Marriott Wilmington-Wrightsville Beach Classic		UNCW Soccer Stadium	Wilmington, NC	4
ODU Soccer Classic	August 31–Sept 2	ODU Soccer Complex	Norfolk, VA	4	VCU

TopDrawer Soccer Team of the week

Bold denotes TDS player of the week.
Postseason

Conference winners and tournaments

^† = A & C denote the Atlantic and Coastal divisions of the ACC.

Postseason awards

Hermann Trophy

The Hermann Trophy is given to the year's most outstanding player. Finalists:
* Andrew Gutman, Indiana
* Andre Shinyashiki, Denver
* J. J. Williams, Kentucky
TDS National Player of the Year
The TopDrawerSoccer.com National Player of the Year Award recognizes the top college soccer player in the nation by the TDS staff. Finalists:
* Andrew Gutman, Indiana
* Donovan Pines, Maryland
* Andre Shinyashiki, Denver
* J. J. Williams, Kentucky
Senior CLASS Award
The Senior CLASS Award is presented each year to the most outstanding senior in NCAA Division I. Finalists:
* Andre Shinyashiki, Denver
* Ryder Bell, William & Mary
* Alex Comsia, North Carolina
* Brad Dunwell, Wake Forest
* Mark Forrest, Lehigh
* DeJuan Jones, Michigan State
* Daniel Krutzen, Albany
* Robbie Mertz, Michigan
* Callum Montgomery, Charlotte
* Tate Schmitt, Louisville
All-Americans

On December 6, 2018; United Soccer Coaches announced the All-America teams for the 2018 season.

Conference player and coaches of the year

Conference	:Category:NCAA Division I men's soccer conference players of the year\|Conference Player of the Year	Offensive Player of the Year	Defensive Player of the Year	Midfielder of the Year	Goalkeeper of the Year	Rookie of the Year	:Category:NCAA Division I men's soccer conference coaches of the year\|Conference Coach of the Year
America East		Geo Alves Vermont	Josh Bauer New Hampshire	Martieon Watson Stony Brook	Lars Huxsohl New Hampshire	Christian Miesch Stony Brook	Ryan Anatol Stony Brook
American	Cal Jennings UCF	Cal Jennings UCF	Jacob Hauser-Ramsey Connecticut	Louis Perez UCF	Yannik Oettl UCF		Scott Calabrese UCF
ACC		Omir Fernandez Wake Forest	Alex Comsia North Carolina	Bruno Lapa Wake Forest		Issa Rayyan Duke	Bobby Muuss Wake Forest
Atlantic Sun	Logan Paynter Lipscomb	Logan Paynter Lipscomb	Preston Kilwein FGCU		Gustavo Vasconcelos FGCU	O'Vonte Mullings FGCU	Charles Marrow Lipscomb
Atlantic 10		Janos Loebe Fordham	Jørgen Oland Fordham	Siad Haji VCU		John Klein Saint Louis	Dave Giffard VCU
Big East		Sven Koenig Creighton	Dylan Nealis Georgetown	Joel Rydstrand Creighton	Luis Barraza Marquette	Skage Simonsen St. John's	Elmar Bolowich Creighton
Big South		Ilias Kosmidis High Point	Johnny Fenwick High Point	Tony Pineda High Point		Amadou Macky Diop Radford	E. J. O'Keeffe High Point
Big Ten		Jack Hallahan Michigan	Andrew Gutman Indiana	Giuseppe Barone Michigan State	Trey Muse Indiana	Jack Maher Indiana	Todd Yeagley Indiana
Big West		Ivan Canales UC Irvine	Roy Boateng UC Davis	Daniel Crisostomo UC Irvine	Henrik Regitnig Cal State Northridge	Benji Kikanović Sacramento State	Yossi Raz UC Irvine
Colonial	Phillip Goodrum UNCW		Sean Nealis Hofstra			Timo Hummrich Delaware	Paul Zazenski James Madison
Conference USA	J. J. Williams Kentucky	J. J. Williams Kentucky	Callum Montgomery Charlotte		Elliot Panicco Charlotte	Jason Reyes Kentucky	Johan Cedergren Kentucky
Horizon	Jesus Perez UIC	Max Todd UIC	Dan Bent Wright State	Jesus Perez UIC	Joel Sundell Wright State	Alex Willis Northern Kentucky	Jake Slemker Wright State
Ivy		Kevin O’Toole Princeton	Dylan Castanheira Columbia			Emeka Eneli Cornell	Jim Barlow Princeton
MAAC		Eamon Whelan Quinnipiac	Jonas Vergin Fairfield		Gordon Botterill Fairfield	Mauro Bravo Iona	Carl Rees Fairfield
Mid-American	Joey Piatczyc West Virginia					Nick Markanich West Virginia	Marlon LeBlanc West Virginia
Missouri Valley	Nicholas Brodaki Central Arkansas	Nicholas Brodaki Central Arkansas	Grant Stoneman Loyola Chicago		Josh Lagudah Loyola Chicago	Mathias Nors Evansville	Ross Duncan Central Arkansas
Northeast	Mario Mastrangelo Saint Francis	Mario Mastrangelo Saint Francis	Erik Johansson LIU Brooklyn			Sam Illin LIU Brooklyn	T. J. Kostecky LIU Brooklyn
Pac-12	Tanner Beason Stanford		Tanner Beason Stanford			Sofiane Djeffal Oregon State	Terry Boss Oregon State
Patriot		Mark Forrest Lehigh	Aram Ouligian Colgate	Barry Sharifi Loyola	Chase Vosvick Loyola	Jacob Williams Navy	Steve Nichols Loyola
Southern	Trevor Martineau Mercer				Ben Hale Furman	Trevor Martineau Mercer	Brad Ruzzo Mercer
Summit		Andre Shinyashiki Denver	Scott DeVoss Denver		Will Palmquist Denver	Callum Stretch Denver	Jamie Franks Denver
Sun Belt	Javier Carbonell Georgia Southern	Yazeed Matthews Coastal Carolina	Kyle Clinton Georgia State	Javier Carbonell Georgia Southern	Jake Chasteen Appalachian State	Logan Luque Georgia State	Brett Surrency Georgia State
WAC		Tucker Bone Air Force	Andrea Seazzu Air Force			Declan McGlynn Seattle U	Paul Leese UTRGV
West Coast	Camden Riley Pacific	Camden Riley Pacific	Wouter Verstraaten Pacific		Remi Prieur Saint Mary's	Sebastian Schacht Saint Mary's	Adam Cooper Saint Mary's

Final rankings

Statistics

Individuals

Last update on 12/10

'Individual statistics are through the games of December 9, 2018
Teams

Last update on 12/13

'Team statistics are through the games of December 9, 2018