Syracuse Men's Soccer: ACC Champions and NCAA Bound

The Syracuse Orange Men's Soccer Team just keeps on improving. The team rolled into the ACC Tournament as the #7 Seed. Now mind you, the #7 seed in the ACC is good enough for the #13 team in the country at the time. They left on Sunday as the newly minted ACC Champions.

The run included wins over four top ten (three top five) teams: #10 NC State, #5 UNC, #2 Clemson and #4 Notre Dame. Not too shabby for any team, let alone a team who lost seven starters last year to graduation or turning pro. It's the Orange's first ACC Title and first conference title since 1985.

In the final against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the boys controlled the pace of play all game, looked the superior side in possession and were able to capitalize right after the half, with Ben Polk making a beautiful run, splitting the centerbacks and getting on the end of a Julian Buescher through ball to slot home the game winner. Polk walked away with the ACC Tournament MVP award and a spot on the all tourney team.

Notre Dame looked strong on the counter, put one off the woodwork in the middle of the first half and pressed hard in the second half, but the Orange defense held true. Freshman keeper Hendrik Hilpert was again stalward in goal, with two saves and his fourth shutout of the year.

The Orange will have their fate determined at 1pm today. The NCAA Tournament selection show will be streamed live on NCAA.com.

Current Rankings:

• Top Drawer Soccer - #5
• RPI - #8 (11/09/15 - Pre-ACC Title)
• College Soccer News - #8

Individual Awards:

2015 All-ACC:

• Julian Buescher - 1st Team
• Oyvind Alseth - 3rd Team
• Kamal Miller - All-Freshman
• Miles Robinson - All-Freshman

2015 ACC All-Tournament Team

• Ben Polk (MVP)
• Julian Buescher
• Miles Robinson
• Hendrik Hilpert