RIVERSIDE, Calif. - UC Riverside men's soccer will travel to the Rose City on Thursday, November 17 to face West Coast Conference at-large bid Portland at Merlo Field in the first round of this year's NCAA Tournament.
Thursday's winner will stay in the Pacific Northwest to battle eighth-seeded Oregon State in Corvallis.
The Highlanders are back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since their inaugural 2018 appearance when they faced another WCC opponent in Pacific. UCR is 0-1 all-time against Portland after a 2-1 away defeat in 2019. Issa Badawiya and Carlos Osorio are the only current Highlanders to have featured in that meeting.
UC Riverside won the Big West regular season title with a 4-1 win over UC Santa Barbara on Senior Night, effectively earning them the number one seed in the Big West Championships. UCR defeated CSUN 4-1 in the semifinals before a 1-0 home win over the Gauchos on Saturday in front of a standing room only crowd claimed the automatic berth.
The 2022 NCAA Men's College Cup, featuring the national semifinals and final, is set for Dec. 9-12 in Cary, N.C. WakeMed Soccer Park serves as host for the sixth time. Clemson is the defending champion. The 48-team field is made up of automatic qualifiers from 23 conferences, in addition to 25 teams that were selected at-large. The top 16 teams were seeded and received first-round byes.
Thursday's match will be streamed live on ESPN+. Stay tuned to NCAA.com for more information.
