Men’s Soccer Receives NCAA Tournament Bid

Nov. 18, 2002

The Clemson men’s soccer team received an NCAA Tournament bid as announced by the NCAA Monday afternoon. Clemson received a bye in the first round of the 48-team tournament and will play the winner of the Coastal Carolina-South Carolina match on Wednesday, November 27, at 7:00 p.m. on Riggs Field. South Carolina and Coastal Carolina will play either on Friday or Saturday.

The Tigers will be making their 23rd NCAA Tournament appearances since the sport was started at Clemson in 1967. This will also be the sixth time in Head Coach Trevor Adair’s eight-year career at Clemson that he has led the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament.

Clemson has a 12-4-3 record this season. Dimelon Westfield leads the Tigers in scoring with 20 goals and four assists for 44 points. He is the first Tiger to score 20 or more goals in a season since Hermann Award-winner, Wojtek Krakowiak scored 31 goals in the 1998 season. Clemson senior, Fabio Tambosi has 12 assists to lead the Tigers in that category.

“Obviously, we are happy to be in the NCAA Tournament and receive a bye in the first round,” said Clemson Head Coach Trevor Adair’s.

“It gives us time to recover and prepare to play in the second round. To have six of the seven ACC teams receive bids today is a credit to our conference and the fine teams that we have in our league. We will take one match at a time and prepare for each match one at a time. To have five teams receive bids from our state of South Carolina is great for soccer in our area. It shows the hard work that the coaches have put in their programs have paid off, and we want to congratulate them for their hard work.

“We look at the NCAA Tournament as another season. We have 10 days to prepare for our match and start competing for the National Championship.”