2021 ACC men's soccer tournament

The 2021 ACC men's soccer tournament was the 35th edition of the ACC Men's Soccer Tournament. The tournament decided the Atlantic Coast Conference champion and guaranteed representative into the 2021 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament. The final was played at Sahlen's Stadium in Cary, North Carolina.^[1]

2021 ACC men's soccer tournament
Classification	Division I
Teams	12
Matches	11
Attendance	16,325
Site	Campus Sites Sahlen's Stadium Cary, North Carolina
Champions	Notre Dame (1st title)
Winning coach	Chad Riley (1st title)
MVP	Dawson McCartney (Notre Dame)
Broadcast	ESPNU (Final), ACC Network
ACC men's soccer tournament «2020  2022»

2021 ACC men's soccer standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
Atlantic
No. 1 Clemson +	5	–	3	–	0			16	–	5	–	2
Louisville +	5	–	3	–	0			10	–	7	–	1
No. 17 Wake Forest +	4	–	3	–	1			13	–	7	–	1
Boston College	2	–	4	–	2			6	–	7	–	2
Syracuse	2	–	5	–	1			8	–	8	–	2
NC State	1	–	5	–	2			7	–	8	–	2
Coastal
No. 12 Duke +	5	–	2	–	1			14	–	5	–	1
No. 6 Pittsburgh +	5	–	2	–	1			13	–	5	–	2
No. 4 Notre Dame ‡	4	–	2	–	2			14	–	5	–	5
North Carolina +	4	–	4	–	0			11	–	7	–	2
No. 19 Virginia Tech +	3	–	4	–	1			11	–	5	–	4
Virginia	2	–	5	–	1			6	–	9	–	3
‡ – ACC Tournament champion + – Also invited to the 2021 NCAA tournament As of December 14, 2021 Rankings from United Soccer Coaches Source: The ACC

The Clemson Tigers were the defending champions, but were unable to defend their title, as they fell to Duke in the semifinals. Notre Dame won their first ACC title, by defeating NC State in the first round, Louisville on penalties in the quarterfinals, Pittsburgh in the semifinals, and Duke in the final, 2–0. It was also the first ACC title for head coach Chad Riley. Notre Dame was the 5 seed entering the tournament, and they became the lowest seeded team to win since Syracuse in 2015, who won as the 7th seed.

Qualification

Main article: 2021 Atlantic Coast Conference men's soccer season

All twelve teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference earned a berth into the ACC Tournament. The winners of each division, Atlantic and Coastal, will be seeds 1 and 2. The top 4 seeds received first round byes and hosted the winner of a first-round game. The remaining 10 teams in the conference will be seeded according to points awarded in conference matches. All rounds, with the exception of the final will be held at the higher seed's home field. Seeding is determined by regular season conference record.^[2]

(*: division winners are automatically given the top two seeds).^[2]

Seed	School	Conference Record	Points	Tiebreaker notes
1	Pittsburgh	5–2–1	16*	3–2 vs. Duke[3]
2	Clemson	5–3	15*	5–1 vs Louisville[4]
3	Duke	5–2–1	16	2–3 vs Pittsburgh[3]
4	Louisville	5–3	15	1–5 vs. Clemson[4]
5	Notre Dame	4–2–2	14
6	Wake Forest	4–3–1	13
7	North Carolina	4–4	12
8	Virginia Tech	3–3–1	10
9	Boston College	2–4–2	8
10	Syracuse	2–5–1	7	3–1 vs. Virginia[5]
11	Virginia	2–5–1	7	1–3 vs. Syracuse[5]
12	NC State	1–5–2	5

Bracket

*Note: Home team listed first. Rankings shown are ACC Tournament Seeds.^[6]

	First Round November 3					Quarterfinals November 7					Semifinals November 10					Final November 14
						1	Pittsburgh (a.e.t.)	2
	8	Virginia Tech (a.e.t.)	1			8	Virginia Tech	1
	9	Boston College	0								1	Pittsburgh	0
											5	Notre Dame	2
						4	Louisville	0 (0)
	5	Notre Dame	1			5	Notre Dame (p)	0 (3)
	12	NC State	0													5	Notre Dame	2
																3	Duke	0
						3	Duke	3
	6	Wake Forest	3			6	Wake Forest	2
	11	Virginia	0								3	Duke	1
											2	Clemson	0
						2	Clemson	2
	7	North Carolina (a.e.t.)	1			7	North Carolina	1
	10	Syracuse	0

Matches

First round

#7 North Carolina v #10 Syracuse

November 3 Match 1	#7 North Carolina	1–0 (a.e.t.)	#10 Syracuse	Chapel Hill, NC
6:00 p.m.	Joe Pickering  15' Riley Thomas  36'  90' Milo Garvanian 106' (pen.)	Report	54' Jeorgio Kocevski  58' Noah Singelmann  97'  102' Hilli Goldhar  105' Christian Curti	Stadium: Dorrance Field Attendance: 544 Referee: Andrea Pileri Assistant referees: Benjamin Wooten Assistant referees: Heath Hixson Fourth official: David McPhun

#8 Virginia Tech v #9 Boston College

November 3 Match 2	#8 Virginia Tech	1–0 (a.e.t.)	#9 Boston College	Blacksburg, VA
7:00 p.m.	Jack Dearie 97'	Report	68' Stefan Sigurdarson  92' Kristofer Konradsson	Stadium: Thompson Field Attendance: 1,535 Referee: David Erbacher Assistant referees: Rick Rogers Assistant referees: Hudson Owens Fourth official: Anthony Wolford

#5 Notre Dame v #12 NC State

November 3 Match 3	#5 Notre Dame	1–0	#12 NC State	Notre Dame, IN
7:00 p.m.	Jack Lynn  42' Dawson McCartney 53' (pen.) Tyler Shea  88'	Report		Stadium: Alumni Stadium Attendance: 174 Referee: Carmen Serbio Assistant referees: Peter Charpentier Assistant referees: Khalaf Al-Latayfeh Fourth official: Justin Bell

#6 Wake Forest v #11 Virginia

November 3 Match 4	#6 Wake Forest	3–0	#11 Virginia	Winston-Salem, NC
8:00 p.m.	Omar Hernandez 21' Kyle Holcomb 42' Julian Kennedy  43' Leo Guarino 69'	Report	2' Andreas Ueland  27' Daniel Wright  54' Jeremy Verley	Stadium: Spry Stadium Attendance: 1,034 Referee: Sorin Stoica Assistant referees: Raymond Thomas Assistant referees: John Rush Fourth official: Kevin Maurer

Quarterfinals

#3 Duke v #6 Wake Forest

November 7 Match 5	#3 Duke	3–2	#6 Wake Forest	Durham, NC
2:00 p.m.	Ian Murphy  25' Thorleifur Úlfarsson 30', 31' Shakur Mohammed  49' Jai Bean 77' Connor Kelly  86'  90' Amir Daley  87'	Report	27' Jake Swallen  41'  87' Babacar Niang 45',  73' Nico Benalcazar	Stadium: Koskinen Stadium Attendance: 1,062 Referee: Andrea Pileri Assistant referees: Gabriel Rivera Assistant referees: Dustin Thorne Fourth official: Aaron Gallagher

#1 Pittsburgh v #8 Virginia Tech

November 7 Match 6	#1 Pittsburgh	2–1 (a.e.t.)	#8 Virginia Tech	Pittsburgh, PA
4:00 p.m.	Valentin Noël 5', 103' Mohammad Abualnadi  26'	Report	9' Kyle McDowell  32' Sivert Haugli  63' Andrew Weber  76' Chris Nicola  86' Nick Blacklock  95' Danny Flores	Stadium: Ambrose Urbanic Field Attendance: 1,443 Referee: Nikola Aleksic Assistant referees: John Safar Assistant referees: Ross Kleinstuber Fourth official: Lucas Feathers

#4 Louisville v #5 Notre Dame

November 7 Match 7	#4 Louisville	0–0 (a.e.t.) (0–3 p)	#5 Notre Dame	Louisville, KY
6:00 p.m.	Ugo Achara  69' Jamie DiLuzio  108'	Report		Stadium: Lynn Stadium Attendance: 582 Referee: John Brady Assistant referees: Johann Pedolzky Assistant referees: Dean Morgan Fourth official: Caleb Riley
	Penalties
	Pedro Fonseca Sander Roed Detre Bell		Jack Lynn Paddy Burns Dawson McCartney

#2 Clemson v #7 North Carolina

November 7 Match 8	#2 Clemson	2–1	#7 North Carolina	Clemson, SC
8:00 p.m.	Isaiah Reid 37' Quinn McNeill 76' Mohamed Seye  83'	Report	20' Santiago Herrera  57' Filippo Zattarin	Stadium: Riggs Field Attendance: 2,351 Referee: Mike Stutt Assistant referees: Kevin Huet Assistant referees: Rick Rogers Fourth official: Ralph Polson

Semifinals

#1 Pittsburgh v #5 Notre Dame

November 10 Semifinal 1	#1 Pittsburgh	0–2	#5 Notre Dame	Pittsburgh, PA
5:00 p.m. EDT	Arturo Ordonez  38'	Report	43' Reese Mayer 77' Jack Lynn 77' Daniel Russo  79' Dawson McCartney  88' Josh Ramsey	Stadium: Ambrose Urbanic Field Attendance: 1,626 Referee: Carmen Serbio Assistant referees: Ankur Singh Assistant referees: William Aten Fourth official: Taylor Bombalski

#2 Clemson v #3 Duke

November 10 Semifinal 2	#2 Clemson	0–1	#3 Duke	Clemson, SC
7:00 p.m. EDT	Hamady Diop  19'	Report	26' Shakur Mohammed 27' (pen.),  34' Thorleifur Úlfarsson  52' Ian Murphy  70' Peter Stroud	Stadium: Riggs Field Attendance: 3,237 Referee: David Erbacher Assistant referees: John Rush Assistant referees: Chris Zuerner Fourth official: Wilmer Soriano

Final

#5 Notre Dame v #3 Duke

November 14	#5 Notre Dame	2–0	#3 Duke	Cary, NC
2:00 p.m. EDT	Dawson McCartney 4', 76' Tyler Shea  62'	Report	36' Cameron Kerr  75' Ruben Mesalles	Stadium: WakeMed Soccer Park Attendance: 2,737 Referee: John McCloskey Assistant referees: Benjamin Wooten Assistant referees: Johann Pedolzky Fourth official: Jude Carr

Statistics

Goalscorers

There were 22 goals scored in 11 matches, for an average of 2 goals per match.

3 goals

• Dawson McCartney – Notre Dame
• Thorleifur Úlfarsson – Duke

2 goals

• Valentin Noël – Pittsburgh

1 goal

• Quinn McNeill – Clemson
• Isaiah Reid – Clemson
• Jai Bean – Duke
• Milo Garvanian – North Carolina
• Santiago Herrera – North Carolina
• Jack Lynn – Notre Dame
• Daniel Russo – Notre Dame
• Jack Dearie – Virginia Tech
• Kyle McDowell – Virginia Tech
• Nico Benalcazar – Wake Forest
• Leo Guarino – Wake Forest
• Omar Hernandez – Wake Forest
• Kyle Holcomb – Wake Forest
• Jake Swallen – Wake Forest

All-Tournament team

Player	Team
2021 ACC Men's Soccer All-Tournament team[7]
Bryan Dowd	Notre Dame
Jack Lynn
Dawson McCartney
Philip Quinton
Shakur Mohammed	Duke
Peter Stroud
Thorleifur Úlfarsson
Oskar Ågren	Clemson
Quinn McNeill
Valentin Noël	Pittsburgh
Arturo Ordoñez

MVP in Bold

References

1. "2021 Men's Soccer Championship". theacc.com. Retrieved October 26, 2021.
2. "ACCMSoccerChampSeedingLanguage (PDF) – Atlantic Coast Conference" (PDF). theacc.com. Retrieved October 26, 2021.
3. "Men's Soccer vs Duke on 10/9/2021 – Box Score". Pitt Panthers #H2P. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
4. "Louisville vs. Clemson box score – 10/29/2021" (PDF). clemsontigers.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 30, 2021.
5. "Men's Soccer vs Virginia on 9/10/2021 – Box Score". Syracuse University Athletics. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
6. "2021 ACC Men's Soccer Championship" (PDF). theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
7. "Notre Dame Wins 2021 ACC Men's Soccer Championship, 2-0, Over Duke". theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. November 14, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2021.