Dayton men’s soccer team will play Big Ten team in second round of NCAA tournament

Coach Dennis Currier addressed his Dayton Flyers soccer players and everyone else who gathered to watch the NCAA tournament selection show Monday at the Frericks Center. He told a story of overhearing senior midfielder Joseph Melto-Quiah say something after every victory early in the season.,

It took Currier a few games to figure out what Melto-Quiah was saying, but then it hit him.

“I don’t mind it,” Melto-Quiah would say. “I don’t mind it.”

That was Melto-Quiah’s way of summing up Dayton’s mood as the victories piled up and the Flyers climbed in the national rankings.

Another thing Currier will remember about this season, which continues at 7 p.m. Sunday at Baujan Field with a second-round game against Michigan in the NCAA tournament, is his idea of naming each game late in the season as if it were a chapter in a book.

The game against Fordham in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament semifinals was titled “Redemption Road” because Fordham beat Dayton 4-2 in the regular season on Oct. 12 at Baujan Field. That’s Dayton’s most recent loss. It has won eight games in a row since then.

Ahead of the A-10 championship game last Sunday, Currier’s new saying was, “Why not us.”

“Why not back-to-back championships?” Currer said.

Why not three straight shutouts in the A-10 tournament by the back four defenders and goalkeeper Dario Caetano, he said.

Why shouldn’t the Flyers keep going, Currier wondered. Why would they stop scoring goals? Why not keep inspiring everybody? Why not go all the way in the NCAA tournament?

That’s the goal now that Dayton (13-2-3) has the No. 5 overall seed in the tournament.

“We’re playing phenomenal,” said defender Hjallti Sigurdsson, a graduate student from Iceland in his third season with the program. “We’ve got eight wins in a row. We’re playing to the best of our ability every game. We put in a lot of work, and it’s paying off right now.”

Daytonl learned Thursday night it will play Michigan (9-4-7), which beat Robert Morris 2-0 in Ann Arbor, Mich. Michigan, is making its ninth NCAA tournament appearance and first since 2019. Its victory Thursday was its first in the tournament since 2012.

Dayton will have to win three matches to reach the College Cup, which is what the Final Four is called in college soccer. The semifinals and finals will take place Dec. 13 and 16 at the WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.

If Dayton wins Sunday, it will play No. 12 seed Southern Methodist or Washington on Nov. 30 at Baujan Field.

Clemson is the defending champion and has won two of the last three titles. It is seeded ninth. Syracuse, the champion in 2022, did not make the tournament. Marshall, the 2020, champion is the No. 13 seed.

Ohio State, the No. 1 overall seed, seeks its first national championship.

It’s a wide-open tournament. Dayton has as good a chance as anyone because of its success in the regular season. It beat four teams that made the NCAA tournament: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville; Indiana; No. 14 seed West Virginia; Fordham; and Saint Louis.

“I always tell our athletic director (Neil Sullivan), men’s soccer is one of the few sports that anybody can win,” Currier said. “You saw that with Marshall. You’ve seen different teams make those runs. Soccer is such an interesting sport where anybody in the entire country can win. Sometimes you have a sport that is more favorable to weather. In soccer, it could just be anybody. Once you make the tournament, anything can happen. We’ve seen that with so many different schools. That’s something that you dream of, and it’s a process. You have to go step by step. So the first game is going to be really important, but we know that.”

Dayton has made a name for itself over the years with a high-scoring offense. It led the nation in scoring offense (2.52 goals per game) in 2015, which was the last time it won the A-10 tournament before winning back-to-back championships this season and last. This season, it ranks second (2.83) behind Duke (3.17).

Dayton’s defense has done its job as well. It ranks 35th in the country in goals-against average, allowing 18 games in 18 games. It did not allow a goal in three A-10 tournament games. It has allowed a total of four goals in its eight-game winning streak.

Currier said the defense has been phenomenal.

“I thought our best performances were in the last three games — to get three shutouts in a row against some very good teams,” Currier said. “One of the things that we we struggled with this year was some set pieces and very direct teams like Saint Louis or Fordham on the counter, and the way they defended the set pieces and the direct play and second balls has just been phenomenal. It really does start with the back four and the goalkeeper, but everybody’s involved defensively.”