MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – The No. 6 seed South Carolina men’s soccer team (12-6-2) fell in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament finals Sunday afternoon (Nov. 15) 4-0 to top-seeded and 7th ranked West Virginia (13-2-4).
Carolina finishes as the tournament runner-up for the first time since 2014. Mike Habel, Angel Lopez, and Daniel Lang were named to the All-Tournament Team.
Habel also was selected for the Elite Award, which is given to the student-athlete reaching the pinnacle of competition while also achieving the highest cumulative GPA among participating players on the last day of the championship.
The Gamecocks defense weathered 14 shots by WVU in the first half, as the Mountaineers were able to get on the scoreboard in the 25th minute. They would add another 10 minutes later to take a 2-0 lead at halftime.
Early in the second half, West Virginia was awarded a penalty kick after VAR in the 51st minute. It would convert on the PK to lead 3-0. Another VAR review gave WVU a fourth goal in the 72nd minute after an offsides call was denied.
Carolina’s offense was limited to four shots, all of which came in the second half. The lone shot on goal came with under two minutes to play by Shawn Lanza.
WVU led the day 22-4 in shots, 12-1 in shots on goal, and 7-1 in corner kicks.
Noah Scheidweiler finished with a season-high eight saves for Carolina.
The Gamecocks will look to hear their name called during the NCAA Selection show tomorrow (Nov. 16) at 1 p.m. streamed on NCAA.com.