2018 American Athletic Conference men's soccer tournament

The 2018 American Athletic Conference men's soccer tournament was the 6th edition of the American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament. The tournament decided the American Athletic Conference champion and guaranteed representative into the 2018 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship. The tournament began on November 6 and concluded on November 10.

In a rematch of the 2017 AAC championship, defending champions, SMU, successfully defended their title. The final match was a 1-1 draw in regulation before SMU bested UCF in penalty kicks to claim their second-ever AAC championship. SMU midfielder, Emil Cuello was named the Offensive Most valuable player of the tournament, while SMU's Grant Makela was named the Defensive Most valuable player of the tournament.

As champions, SMU earned the conference's automatic bid into the 2018 NCAA Tournament. In addition to SMU, regular season champions and tournament runners-up, UCF earned an at-large bid, as well as Connecticut. In the NCAA Tournament, SMU was eliminated in the first round by Oregon State. Connecticut beat Rhode Island in the first round before losing to Indiana in the second round. UCF was seeded 14th in NCAA Tournament, and earned a second round bye. There, UCF lost to Lipscomb in overtime.

Seeds

SeedSchoolConferenceTiebreaker 1UCF5–1–1UCF 1–0 vs. SMU 2SMU5–1–1SMU 0–1 vs. UCF 3South Florida4–1–2 4Connecticut3–2–2 5Temple2–4–1Goal differential 6Memphis2–4–1Goal differential

Bracket

Results

First round

Semifinals

Final

Statistics

Top goalscorers 1 Goal

Christian Boorom – SMU Josh Burnett – Connecticut Dayonn Harris – Connecticut Alexandros Ierides – Memphis Cal Jennings – UCF Andrés Hernández – UCF Chris Mikus – Memphis Belal Mohamed — Temple Philip Ponder – SMU Gurman Sangha – Memphis Max Stiegwardt – UCF Akean Shackleford – SMU Yoni Sorokin – UCF Abdou Mbacke Thiam – Connecticut Cole Venner – Connecticut David Zalzman – Memphis Alex Zis – South Florida

Own goals

Nick Sarver — Temple (playing against Connecticut)

Awards and honors

Tournament Offensive MVP: Emil Cuello, SMU Tournament Defensive MVP: Grant Makela, SMU

All-Tournament team:

Abdou Mbacke Thiam, UConn Gurman Sangha, Memphis Cal Jennings, UCF Andres Hernandez, UCF Yanis Leerman, UCF

Louis Perez, UCF Christian Boorom, SMU Emil Cuello, SMU Akean Shackelford, SMU Philip Ponder, SMU Grant Makela, SMU

References

External links 2018 AAC Men's Soccer Championship Central AAC Men's Soccer Championship Bracket