Wildcats will host either Loyola Maryland or North Carolina Sunday in second round

DURHAM - A day after losing to Vermont in the America East championship game, the University of New Hampshire men's soccer team learned its postseason fate on Monday afternoon when the 48-team field in the NCAA Tournament was announced.

UNH (16-1-2, 7-0-1 America East) received one of the 25 at-large bids, and is the No. 16 seed.

The Wildcats earned a first-round bye and will play the winner of Loyola Maryland (10-6-3, 7-2-0 Patriot League) and North Carolina (11-6-1, 4-4-0 ACC) on Sunday in the second round at Wildcat Stadium. Game time is scheduled for 2 p.m.

Men's college soccer: Vermont beats UNH, 1-0 in America East championship

Vermont took the America East title with a 1-0 win to earn the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. .

The undefeated and top-seeded Wildcats never considered the possibility they might lose Sunday afternoon’s America East championship game at Wildcat Stadium where they had lost just once in five years.

“We didn’t plan to lose,” said Exeter native and co-captain Jacob Gould. “I’m not sure what to expect.”

With the loss the Wildcats dropped to 42-2-7 all-time at Wildcat Stadium. They entered Sunday’s contest ranked sixth nationally in Division I and one of only two unbeaten teams in the country.

That changed in the second half Sunday when Yves Borie volleyed a pass from Adrian Solano into the right-hand corner with 22:52 remaining for the only goal of the game. It also ended UNH's quest for a fourth straight America East title.

“It’s a tough one to swallow, getting caught like that on our home field on championship day,” Gould said. “We just didn’t have it today.”

UNH was 7-0-0 in their previous seven America East tournament games, outscoring the opposition 19-0. That’s why Sunday’s result was so stunning, although No. 2 Vermont (13-4-2) appeared to be the more desperate team. A loss would have ended the Catamounts’ season.

Two of their first three shots on goal came in the first seven minutes. The other one resulted in the game-winning goal.

“We weren’t good enough today,” UNH head coach Marc Hubbard said. “Probably half the guys didn’t play up to their potential and when you do that against a team that’s committed to their task and what they’re doing you get caught … I’m not surprised that we didn’t get the result because we didn’t show up.”

Trailing 1-, the Wildcats’ best chance to pull even came with 3:25 left in the second half but Rory O’Driscoll’s free kick from 28 yards was wide left.

Yannick Bright and Liam Bennett had UNH’s only two shots on goal, one coming in each half. UNH had been playing at such a high level for most of the season until Sunday’s effort.

“It think it’s going to be pretty easy (to regroup),” Hubbard said as his players watched Vermont receive the spoils of victory on UNH’s home field. “They understand what’s at stake. I think it’s going to be easy for them to get up and look at themselves in the mirror and be in a position to play to their potential whenever that is.”

UNH keeper Jassem Koleilat finished with two saves as did Vermont’s Nathan Silveira, who made a diving stop to his right with 37:25 remaining in the first half.

Vermont’s Alex Nagy is from Bow and almost went to UNH. He leads the Catamounts in scoring with 20 points.

“They probably thought they were going to take it to us,” he said, “and we took it to them.”

Overall, the Wildcats outshot the Catamounts, 6-5. Each team had one corner kick.

“They’re just a hard-working team,” Gould said of Vermont. “They fight for every second ball, every first ball and they press with a lot of desire and heart.”

UNH’s Bilal Kamal, Bridger Hansen and Johann von Knebel were named to the all-championship team.

“We all knew coming into this it was going to be a tight game,” Gould said. “In general we just didn’t put out our best effort and kind of let it slip away there at the end.”

After the Catamounts scored they bolted for the UNH student section, the most vocal of 3,403 spectators, to celebrate.

“All we can do is move forward and get ready,” Hubbard said. “We’re still in a position to get to the final four and achieve a national championship. It’s just disappointing that this had to happen at our home field with all these people here and in that moment.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: UNH men's soccer receives at-large bid to NCAA tourney