The 2024 Vermont Catamounts men's soccer team represented the University of Vermont during the 2024 NCAA Division I men's soccer season. They were led by head coach Rob Dow, in his eighth season. They played their home games at Virtue Field. This was the team's 60th season playing organized men's college soccer and their 36th playing in the America East Conference.
Regarded as the program's best season in its history, the Catamounts started the season with a loss to ranked Western Michigan and a draw with UC Irvine. These results saw them fall from their preseason ranking of fourteenth to unranked the following week. Despite a slow start, they followed it up with not losing a game for 11 decisions, going 8–0–3, with conference wins over Bryant and rival Albany. They started conference play with a tie to New Hampshire. They would go on to win their next three conference games before their first conference loss against UMBC on October 26. That match would be the last match that Vermont would lose for the remainder of the season. They would follow that with a win and a draw to close out the regular season with a 9–2–5 overall record and a 4–1–2 AEC record. The Catamounts were the second overall seed in the AEC tournament. They defeated third seed UMBC in the Semi-Finals and fourth seed Bryant in the Finals where Vermont won their seventh AEC tournament title.
The tournament victory earned Vermont the AEC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Vermont, however, were not ranked. Despite this, the Catamounts went on a Cinderella run, defeating Iona in the first round, seventh seed Hofstra in the second round, San Diego in the third round, and second seed Pittsburgh in the Quarterfinals to reach the College Cup. A victory over third seed Denver saw them reach the national title match against Marshall. Vermont would go on to defeat Marshall in overtime and win the national title 2–1. The national title was the first in program history as well as the first NCAA team championship in school history.
Background
The Catamounts finished the previous season 13–6–2 overall and 4–3–0 in AEC play to finish in fourth place in the conference. Despite being the fourth overall seed in the AEC Tournament, they were defeated by NJIT in the Quarterfinals. They were given a bid to the NCAA Tournament and were unranked. However, they defeated Rider in the first round, upset twelfth seed UCF in the second round, before losing to fifth seed West Virginia in the third round.
Transfers Players leaving
+ 2024 transfers from the Vermont CatamountsNo.NamePos.HeightWeightYearHometownReason for Departure 2 Daniel Pacella Midfielder 5′ 10″ 170 Senior Transferred to San Diego State 35 Jacob Vitale Midfielder 5′ 9″ 175 Senior Transferred to Fairfield 6 Jake Ashford Defender 6′ 2″ 165 Senior Graduated 17 Ryan Combe Midfielder 5′ 11″ 145 Senior Graduated 14 Noe Coutino Left Winger 5′ 11″ 161 Sophomore Left program 13 Carter Johnson Midfielder 5′ 11″ 166 Senior Graduated
Players arriving
+ 2024 transfers to the Vermont CatamountsNo.NamePos.HeightWeightYearHometownPrevious School 0 Lou Liedtka Goalkeeper 6′ 0″ 175 Graduate Student Wyncote, Pennsylvania Davidson 2 Nathan Simeon Defender 5′ 11″ 175 Graduate Student Montreal, Quebec San Francisco 3 Mike Bleeker Defender 6′ 0″ 190 Graduate Student Wayne, New Jersey American 9 Maximilian Kissel Forward 6′ 0″ 150 Junior Wiesbaden, Germany Bridgeport 14 Ethan Czaporowski Forward 5′ 8″ 160 Belchertown, Massachusetts Virginia Tech
Recruiting class + 2024 Vermont Catamounts incoming transfersNat.NamePos.HometownHigh SchoolTDS Rating Ryan Zellefrow Forward Berwyn, Pennsylvania Conestoga High School
Squad
Roster
+ 2024 Vermont Catamounts rosterNo.NameNationalityPositionAgeCommittedPrevious club 0 Lou Liedtka 2024 1 Niklas Herceg 2024 2 2024 3 Mike Bleeker – 2024 4 Cole Richardson – 2021 – 5 Adrian Schulze Solano 2021 6 Connor Thompson – 2021 – 5 Andrew Millar – 2022 – 9 2023 10 Maximilian Kissel 2024 11 Nick Lockermann 2023 – 12 Yaniv Bazini 2022 13 Nash Barlow – 2023 – 14 David Ismail 2024 15 Ethan Czaporowski – 2024 16 Gianluca Armellino 2023 17 Ioannis Vassiliou 2024 18 Marcell Papp 2024 19 Toby Grant – 2024 – 21 Karl Daly – 2022 – 22 2023 24 TJ Liquori – 2023 – 25 Pieter Bultman – 2023 – 27 Ryan Zellefrow 2024 – 28 Zach Barrett 2020 31 Jeremy Tsang 2023 36 Max Murray 2020 99 Mitchell Ringman – 2024 –
Coaching staff +Technical staff Position Name Nationality Head coach Rob Dow Assistant coach Rory Twomey Associate head coach Brad Cole Director of Operations Mack Walton Athletic Director Jeff Schulman Schedule
Source: UVM
!colspan=6 style=""| Regular season
!colspan=6 style=""| AEC Tournament
!colspan=6 style=""| NCAA Tournament
Player statistics
Goals + 2024 UVM Soccer Goals Rank No. Nat. Po. Name Regular season AAC Tournament NCAA Tournament Total 1 12 FW Yaniv Bazini 6 2 6 14 2 10 FW Maximillian Kissel 7 1 3 11 3 18 FW Marcell Papp 3 1 1 5 4 36 FW Max Murray 4 0 0 4 5 14 FW David Ismail 1 0 2 3 6 27 FW Ryan Zellefrow 1 0 1 2 7 MF Andrew Millar 2 0 0 2 8 22 DF Sydney Wathuta 1 0 0 1 28 DF Zach Barrett 1 0 0 1 3 DF Mike Bleeker 1 0 0 1 6 MF Connor Thompson 1 0 0 1 13 MF Nash Barlow 1 0 0 1 25 DF Pieter Bultman 1 0 0 1 9 MF Niels Hartman 1 0 0 1 Opponent own goal 0 0 0 0Total 0 0 0 48
Disciplinary record + 2024 UVM Soccer Disciplinary record Rank No. Nat. Po. Name Regular Season AAC Tournament NCAA Tournament Total 1 5 DF Adrian Schulze Solano 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 4 0 0 2 25 DF Pieter Bultman 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 22 FW Sydney Wathuta 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 27 FW Ryan Zellefrow 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 5 3 DF Mike Bleeker 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 9 MF Niels Hartman 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 28 DF Zach Barrett 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 13 MF Nash Barlow 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 11 DF Nick Lockermann 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 14 FW David Ismail 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 7 MF Andrew Millar 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 12 31 DF Jeremy Tsang 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 GK Lou Liedtka 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 21 DF Karl Daly 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 10 FW Maximillian Kissel 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 6 MF Connor Thompson 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 18 FW Marcell Papp 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 17 DF Ioannis Vassiliou 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 36 FW Max Murray 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Team 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0Total 25005005003500
Awards and honors + America East Conference Sydney Wathuta Midfielder of the Year November 12, 2024 Zach Barrett Defender of the Year Sydney Wathuta All-AAC First Team November 8, 2024 Yaniv Bazini Zach Barrett Maximilian Kissel All-AAC Second Team Max Murray Kiklas Herceg Niklas Herceg All-AAC Rookie Team Ryan Zellefrow Yaniv Bazini All-AAC Academic Team
+ NCAA Tournament Maximilian Kissel All-Tournament Team December 16, 2024 Kiklas Herceg Yaniv Bazini Zach Barrett Marcell Papp Maximilian Kissel Tournament OMVP Niklas Herceg Tournament DMVP
2025 MLS SuperDraft
Sydney Wathuta Colorado Rapids 1 16 FW Max Murray New York City FC 1 17 DF
Source: Burlington Free Press
Rankings
See also Vermont Catamounts men's soccer
Notes
References