The happy UNH men's soccer team will be back at it in the NCAA tournament in two weeks, facing Kentucky in the second round. (Courtesy photo by China Wong/UNH Athletics)

DURHAM — The University of New Hampshire men’s soccer team (8-0-1, 5-0-1 America East) has earned a first-round bye in the NCAA Tournament and will take on Kentucky (11-4-2, 3-3-1 Conference USA) on Sunday, May 2 in the second round.

The winner will play either No. 5 seed Wake Forest (11-2-2, 3-0-2 ACC) or Sun Belt champions Coastal Carolina (9-4-2, 5-1-0 Sun Belt) in the third round on Thursday, May 6. This will be UNH’s third trip to the second round in program history.

“We have two weeks, we have all their games (on film) so we have plenty of time that we’ll have a good game plan and be very familiar (with Kentucky) very shortly,” UNH coach Marc Hubbard said. “We’re just enjoying the moment right now.”

The 36-team field is made up of champions from 22 conferences, who qualified automatically, in addition to 14 teams that were selected at-large. The top eight teams were all seeded for this year’s tournament that is taking place in Cary, North Carolina, and the surrounding area.

The Wildcats earned an automatic bid by winning their third straight America East Tournament championship with a 2-0 victory versus Vermont at Wildcat Stadium on Saturday, April 17. The Wildcats are now the third America East team to ever win three consecutive championships.

This is UNH’s fifth NCAA Tournament appearance and fourth straight as the Wildcats earned at-large bids to the 1994 and 2017 tournaments, and automatic bids this year and in 2018 and 2019. UNH is 2-4-1 all-time in the NCAA Tournament making it to the Round of 16 in 2017.

“At the end of the day, we want to play big teams like (Kentucky) that are well known across the country,” UNH senior Jacob Gould of Exeter said. “It’s an opportunity for us to showcase our brand of soccer and what UNH soccer has become.”

Kentucky will be making its 11th NCAA Tournament appearance. This will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs.

UNH went 8-0-1 (.944) overall this season which is the top winning percentage in the nation and is the program’s best winning percentage in school history. The Wildcats went 5-0-1 in America East earning the regular season championship for the second straight season and their third regular season championship in program history.

UNH has outscored the opposition 22-6 with four shutouts. UNH is ranked sixth in the nation with 2.44 goals per game. UNH is also ranked fifth in the nation in assists per game (2.89) and points per game (7.78).

UNH went undefeated at Wildcat Stadium this season with a record of 5-0-1, improving their all-time record to 34-1-5. UNH has outscored its opponents 78-14 over the 40 games played at the stadium.

“Our road to the College Cup looks like an exciting one, and we could be potentially matched up with some really good teams,” Hubbard said. “That’s why we work hard to get to this point. … to prove to everyone else we belong in the upper echelon of college soccer.”

(Telegraph staff writer Tom King contributed to this report).

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