Knights eager to make most of opportunity in NCAA tourney
UCF men’s soccer head coach Scott Calabrese remembers the last time he played in the NCAA men’s soccer tournament.
It was 2015 and he led the FIU Panthers during a tough first-round loss.
Three years later and in his second year with the Knights, Calabrese is in a much stronger position. He has guided No. 7 UCF to a second-round tournament appearance. The Knights host Lipscomb at 6 p.m. Sunday at the UCF Soccer Complex.
“I think the level of excitement is really high,” Calabrese said. “The main thing is to keep [the team] focus and to make sure to understand what the plan is, to make sure to understand their opponent and how we want to attack them and defend against them.”
The Knights (13-2-3) clinched the American Athletic Conference regularseason championship earlier this month with a 1-0 victory against Cincinnati.
Lipscomb defeated Washington 5-4 in a penalty-kick shootout Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Calabrese is leading the Knights to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011 in only his second year with the program. He expects a challenge this weekend after watching the Bisons take down the Huskies.
“They’re a team we really need to prepare for,” Calabrese said. “It’s going to be a big challenge for the guys. We just have to prepare for this game like we have prepared for every single game this season. We have given such importance to our preparation that there really is no need for a change … so we’ll go through the exact same process that we’ve gone through all year just for a different opponent.”
If the Knights win on Sunday, they’ll play the winner between Kentucky and Portland, who also play on Sunday.
UCF junior forward Cal Jennings, who lead the Knights in scoring with 20 goals in 18 appearances, praised Calabrese for creating a winning culture since arriving in 2017.
“I love playing for coach Calabrese,” Jennings said. “I feel like he’s implemented a system where we can all be creative on the field and keep the ball and really have fun attacking. It shows the success we had the last two years has been really good. We’ll just better even after I’m gone from UCF.”
When asked if going far in the tournament is a realistic goal, Calabrese said his only focus is Sunday and nothing else.
“We’re just always lining up to win the next game in front of us,” Calabrese said. “We, as a coaching staff, don’t even look at the game ahead. We’re so dialed in, we want this group so dialed in on how they have to play in the next game that there is no time or room for us go beyond that.”