The Emory University men’s and women’s soccer teams are preparing for the Final Four of their respective NCAA Division III (DIII) soccer tournaments after advancing through the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight rounds on Nov. 22 and 23. Both teams will travel to Salem, Va., with the women’s team set to compete against Tufts University (Mass.) on Dec. 4, and the men’s team taking on Trinity University (Texas) the following day.
Men’s team reaches Final Four for first time in program history
For the first time in program history, the men’s soccer team advanced to the Final Four of the NCAA DIII Men’s Soccer Championships. The Eagles are moving on to Salem, Va., to face off against the No. 5 Trinity Tigers at Roanoke College (Va.) in a highly anticipated Final Four fixture.
The Eagles defeated Dickinson College (Pa.) in penalty kicks after an exciting but scoreless 110 minutes of play. Men’s soccer head coach Cory Greiner entrusted sophomore defender Josh Ali with the first penalty. Ali kept his cool, converting the penalty and getting the Eagles on the board. Ali admitted the moment was not one he had pictured leading up to the season.
“If you had told me at the beginning of the season in August that I’d be doing that, I definitely wouldn’t believe you,” Ali said. “Going into the tournament, we knew that at least one game was going to be a tight one ... so, we were prepared when the moment came. We had full confidence in each and every one of the guys.”
With hopes of a national championship at stake, junior goalkeeper Geoffrey Halpern helped deliver the Eagles’ 10th clean sheet of the season. Halpern made six saves, including crucial stops in the 79th minute and both overtime frames. He credited the team’s goalkeeper coach Felipe Quintero for preparing him for the important penalty kicks.
“We train set pieces pretty frequently, and then through our goalkeeper training with our coach, [Quintero], I’ve seen shots like that plenty of times before,” Halpern said. “It was just a matter of staying calm in that situation … stay ready, stay set and react to the ball, as opposed to guessing where it’s gonna go.”
Halpern believes his chemistry with defense players was a significant factor in the Eagles’ historic victory.
“We were super efficient in that game,” Halpern said. “They had a lot more of a dynamic attack, something we hadn’t seen as much thus far in the season. … Now it’s just us complementing off each other — we’re all synced up, we understand how each other play, what the game is going to require from us.”
With the shootout tied 3-3 and a trip to the Final Four on the line, graduate forward Ignacio Cubeddu, the team’s leading scorer, stepped up to the plate and delivered the walk-off winner. Cubeddu described the thoughts running through his mind as he approached the penalty spot.
“As soon as I saw a miss, I was like, ‘Wow, this is it. You can’t write something like this,’” Cubbedu said. “This is pretty much everything I’ve worked for, this opportunity right here for me. And luck of the draw, you just take it.”
In addition to working toward high-pressure moments like the penalty kick, Cubeddu said he is pursuing a championship even in the face of adversity in his own soccer career.
“The standard for me has always been trying to win a national championship,” Cubeddu said. “Coming here to a new team, there’s always a lot of doubt, like, ‘Oh, can you do it again? … Can you do it with all the doubt and with everything on the line?’”
Despite the thrilling victory, Cubeddu and the Eagles are not satisfied yet. The team has their eyes set on something bigger: a national title.
“This is the furthest the program has ever gone,” Cubeddu said. “And if we can take it a step further, we can really write history. So, there’s a lot on the line for us to be the first guys ever at Emory to win a national championship.”
Women’s team returns to Final Four for second consecutive season
After a gritty 1-0 win over Pomona-Pitzer Athletics (Calif.) in the Elite Eight, the women’s team will return to the Final Four for the second year in a row, and only the third time in program history.
For the women’s team, the postseason road back was neither guaranteed nor easy. Emory faced a tough side of the bracket, playing No. 19 Johns Hopkins University (Md.) in their Sweet 16 match-up. Yet, the Eagles met the moment with the same toughness and tactical consistency that has defined their season.
In the match against Johns Hopkins, senior goalkeeper Sophia Garcia delivered two crucial first-half saves, including a diving save in the 40th minute to keep the game at 1-1 heading into halftime. The Eagles came out on the attack in the second half with four shots on goal in the first ten minutes, resulting in a goal from sophomore forward Mikayla Camp in the 56th minute off of a cross by sophomore forward Emory Bozzuti.
In the Elite Eight, the Eagles broke through early against Pomona-Pitzer. In the 17th minute,Camp controlled a long pass from junior defender Jessica Nastasi and scored, putting the Eagles up 1-0 with her third goal of the weekend.
Women’s team head coach Sue Patberg emphasized that team leadership did not overhaul tactics heading into the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight and said film study, matchup preparation and discipline remained the core.
“Leading up to the game, more than in the game, we did a ton of crossing and finishing,” Patberg said. “That really came into play that weekend.”
Garcia, who recorded eight total saves across the weekend, said the team’s return to the Final Four reflects “a legacy” actively being built.
“To be able to have gone in the past few years and make it so that it’s already half of what the program history has accomplished all together is truly something that we all feel really privileged to be part of,” Garcia said. “We’re really building a good structure for the next coming years.”
For Garcia, the biggest change between last year’s tournament and this one has been building confidence in her playing.
“Last year I was really, really nervous to even be in the tournament,” Garcia said. “Now, since I’m way more confident, I’m able to cater more of my energy into making sure that our underclassmen are feeling their best.”
Garcia also pointed to the team’s “big five” mindset that the first five minutes and last five minutes of each half are defining moments in games, and can help keep energy up.
“That electrifies us,” Garcia said. “There’s been games where I’ve had to make some early saves … and when I am successful with those saves it really gives us energy.”
Similarly, Bozzuti said the postseason brought a shift in mentality for the entire team.
“The aspect of breaking it down, it’s one game, it’s just opponent X,” Bozzuti said. “You have to take care of business until you can make it to the next round.”
Patberg pointed to several regular-season games that convinced her the team had the resilience to make another deep run, citing wins against Columbus State University (Ga.), the University of Chicago and Case Western Reserve University (Ohio) and their tough University Athletic Association (UAA) schedule as matches in which the Eagles had to “grit out” tight victories.
“That’s what gets you through a Johns Hopkins and a Pomona game, is playing in the UAA,” Patberg said. “That sets you up to be able to grit it out against fantastic opponents.”
Garcia echoed Patberg’s sentiment and said that pressure fuels their team rather than overwhelming them.
“The better competition we play, the better we are as a team,” Garcia said. “We strive on that pressure, we feed off of it.”
Last year’s Final Four appearance changed the standard for the Eagles, and this year has solidified their status. As the Eagles prepare for their game against No.3 Tufts on Dec. 4, the team has some unfinished business this time around.
“For each one of these players, in their sporting career, this is the pinnacle,” Patberg said. “This is as good as it gets.”
