Tulsa Men’s Soccer to Face #18 UCF in The American Championship on Saturday

Tulsa's No. 2 seed men's soccer team will face No. 1 seed and 18^th-ranked UCF in the American Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday, April 17 beginning at 6:00 pm at the UCF Soccer and Track Complex in Orlando, Fla.

Fans can watch the game live on ESPN+. For full tournament information, visit The American's Tournament Central.

Both the Tulsa-Temple and UCF-SMU semifinal matches ended in a 1-1 tie and both teams advanced to the title game after a penalty kick shootout.

This will be the Golden Hurricane's fourth appearance in the title game, but first since 2016. All three of TU's American Athletic Conference Championships have come by a shootout, tying USF (0-0) in 2014, UConn (1-1) in 2015 and USF (1-1) in 2016. TU has played in 11 games that have gone into a shootout and has advanced or claimed the title in nine of those contests. Five of those shootouts came in The American, with the Hurricane advancing or claiming the title in each instance.

Besides the Golden Hurricane's three American Athletic Conference titles, Tulsa won four Conference USA tournament titles and one Missouri Valley Conference tournament title. The Golden Hurricane also has four (3 C-USA; 1 MVC) regular season championships

Tulsa has a 6-3-2 mark on the season and is led offensively by Alex Meinhard who was named as The American Offensive and Rookie of the Year. Meinhard has a team-best seven goals, five of which were game-winners, 15 points and 33 shots, while Ben Barkley has two scores and four others have one goal on the year. Lucas Cline has logged all 1040:50 between the posts, picked up 33 saves for a 0.733 saves percentage and allowed 12 goals for a 1.04 goals-against average.

The Knights have a 7-3-1 mark on the season and have not lost a match in the last seven games. Seven players have scored goals for UCF, including four each from Gino Vivi, Hattabiou Barry and Yoni Sorokin. Vivi has a team-best three assists. Yannik Oettl and Matt Douglas have combined for 1,021 minutes in goal. The duo has recorded 53 saves for a 0.855 saves percentage and has allowed nine goals for a 0.79 GAA.

Tulsa owns a 12-4-3 lead in the all-time series with UCF, including a 1-0 win at UCF and a 3-1 win in Tulsa earlier this season.

Tulsa Men’s Soccer to Face #18 UCF in The American Championship on Saturday

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Players Mentioned

Ben Barkley

Lucas Cline

Alex Meinhard