Clemson Soccer: Tournament Time

Women's Soccer (13-3-1)

Congrats to the Clemson Women's Soccer team for making the ACC Tournament for the first time since 2007! Coach Radwanski has done an exceptional job turning around this program over the past few years. This is a major milestone for a program that is attempting to assert itself as a consistent challenger in the toughest conference in the nation.

The Tigers took care of their share of the business with a 1-0 road win over Syracuse on Saturday. Clemson scored early in the match, the 15th minute, and rode a strong defensive performance to grind out the road victory. The Tigers also got the help they needed to grab the ACC Tournament spot. Virginia Tech, #4 nationally dropped to 5th in the conference when they lost on the road to Notre Dame, #14 nationally, 3-0. Even though Clemson is tied with Florida State and North Carolina on 21 points, the Tigers have lost to both the Seminoles and the Tar Heels so Clemson is stuck with the fourth seed.

The ACC Tournament kicks off Friday night in Cary, N.C.. The Tigers will take on the #1 team nationally, the Virginia Cavaliers. Clemson lost to Virginia at the beginning of October by a 0-2 score. The Tigers played very well throughout that game but conceded a goal right after the start of the second half. The Tigers were unlucky to not tie the game and instead conceded a second goal while they were pressing late in the game. While it will be an uphill battle I think that Clemson will have opportunities to win one of the biggest games in recent program history.

Men's Soccer (14-1-2)

The men's team secured a top 4 ACC regular season finish for the second consecutive season. The Tigers had an outside chance to win the division but Wake Forest secured the division and conference title with a 4-2 victory Friday night on the road against Louisville. Clemson finished tied on points with North Carolina but the Tar Heels finished second in the conference because they won the Coastal division.

Clemson capped off their regular season with an impressive 4-1 victory on the road at NC State Friday night. TJ Casner scored his 8th goal of the season. After a slow and disappointing start to the season TJ Casner has played exceptionally well over the past two months and shows no sign of slowing down. Sophomore Michael Melvin scored the first two goals of his Clemson career. Melvin has seen his play increase over the course of the season and is a talented rotational player. Melvin played some as a freshman at both fullback and wide attacking mid and has continued to develop and play well in those same positions this season. It will be interesting to see how much more playing time Melvin is able to win heading into next season since both of those positions are crowded at the moment.

The Tigers begin their ACC tournament play Sunday afternoon against Boston College here in Clemson. Clemson defeated on senior night just over a week ago by the score of 1-0. Clemson coasted through much of that game and I expect to see a much more dialed in and fired up Tiger team on Sunday. If Clemson wins Sunday, and there are no crazy upsets, the Tigers will more than likely go on the road to take on North Carolina in a rematch of last year's NCAA Sweet Sixteen game that the Tigers lost. It appears that the ACC has changed up the tournament a bit this year, with all of the games being held on campus sites, rather than hosting the semifinals and finals in Cary like last season.