⚽️ Vermont is a Soccer State

Every now and then you get a team who is just destined to make a run, and you had exactly that in the NCAA Men’s National Champions.

When you think of the University of Vermont, I’d bet you wouldn’t think the following: “Wow, I bet they’re really good at Men’s Soccer! With all that sun year round, they must be able to practice all the time”. If you thought that, you should probably look up what Vermont looks like in the winter.

Despite our perceptions about Vermont, they ARE good at men’s soccer. So good, in fact, that they are your NCAA National Champions. It was a magical run from the Catamounts, too.

UVM became just the third team in the last decade to beat two top-four seeds in one tournament en route to a National Championship. UVM defeated No. 2 Pittsburgh and No. 3 Denver in the two rounds before the finals, where they faced the No. 13 team in the country Marshall. They went to OT with Marshall after scoring a second half equalizer. It was a beautiful pass ahead to a one-on-one where the Vermont player beat the Marshall defender, then the Marshall goalie and tapped in the game winner to make Vermont National Champs.

While I may have made it seem like just some miracle run, this team has been building to a championship. In 2016, UVM made their first semifinal in program history, but lost 4-3 to a juggernaut in University of Virginia. Over the last three seasons, UVM has won 10 NCAA tournament games, more than any other program in the country.

This is the first championship in the programs history, and the 7th overall for the university. The other 6? All in skiing. Pretty poetic.

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