By Official Florida FC
North Florida will serve as the Sunshine State’s only representative in the Division I men’s tournament.
The Ospreys (7-7-4) won the ASUN Tournament title on Saturday night. They will play West Virginia (12-1-7) on Thursday in the Mountain State.
First-year UNF head coach Jamie Davies told Jacksonville Today the turnaround is due to the team’s grit and belief that more scoring chances will arise. He is hopeful the conference championship will invigorate the UNF community.
“That’s what dreams are made of. You could see it with the administrative people and people who work in an office here at UNF were out on the pitch and so excited,” Davies said. “It makes you proud to be a part of UNF. That’s what I was almost most emotional about after the game. I thought ‘Holy cow. We just brought a whole university together.’ To see this emotion and people so happy that, maybe, don’t even have anything to do with soccer and put a smile on their faces and everything like that. I think that was the most cool part.”
If North Florida wins in the first round of the 48-team tournament, it will face No. 11 seed Virginia on Sunday.
Division II men
Lynn University has been the No. 1 team in the United Soccer Coaches Division II poll for most of the season. That did not appear to matter to the NCAA Division II selection committee as the Fighting Knights received the No. 2 seed in Super Region 2 on Monday evening.
Lynn (15-0-2) won the Sunshine State regular season and tournament titles. The Fighting Knights have been dominant, having trailed for just 57 minutes across 17 matches this season.
Nevertheless, Lynn might have to leave Florida before the national semifinals.
There is no guarantee that Lynn qualifies for a 10th national semifinal. The Fighting Knights host the winner of Flagler College and West Florida on Nov. 24.
Flagler (12-4-3) won the Peach Belt Conference Tournament final over Clayton State on Sunday afternoon to play its way into the 40-team field. The Saints are unbeaten in its last six matches.
West Florida (11-2-4) had its 15-match unbeaten streak snapped in the Gulf South Conference Tournament final. Interestingly, West Florida senior defender Keegan Lynch – the Co-Defensive Player of the Year in the Gulf South Conference – is from St. Augustine and the son of former Flagler men’s soccer coach John Lynch.
Division II women
There may not be as many spicy sublots surrounding the women’s programs in the state that qualified for the NCAA Division II Tournament.
West Florida is the No. 1 seed in the South Region after Gulf South’s regular season and tournament titles. The Argonauts (15-1-3) will host the winner of Nova Southeastern (7-5-4) and Union University.
Florida Tech, a national semifinalist in 2023, is the No. 2 seed in the South Region. The Panthers (13-2-3) beat Nova Southeastern in penalties on Sunday to claim the Sunshine State Conference Tournament title.
Florida Tech will host either Montevallo or Embry-Riddle (8-7-3) in the second round on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m.
In the Southeast region, Flagler College is in the tournament for the seventh straight year. The Saints earned the No. 5 seed and will face Catawba on Friday at noon in Columbus, Ga.
Flagler senior Andrea Fernandez has been the most outstanding attacker in Division II soccer this year. She has scored or assisted 35 of Flagler’s 49 goals this season. She leads all of Division II with 22 goals and is tied for second in the country with 13 assists.
Flagler (8-3-6) is far from a one-woman show. Paige Churchill has nine goals and eight assists, including the opening goal in a win over West Florida back in September.
Disclosure: Official Florida FC founder Will Brown spoke with Davies for Jacksonville Today.
The lead image was provided by Asher Clark.
