TU Men's Soccer: McIntosh Talks Three-Peating, Facing Creighton In NCAA Championship Round 1

The Tulsa men's soccer team will travel to Omaha, Nebraska, to take on No. 24 Creighton in the NCAA Championship First Round this Thursday, November 17. The game will be played at Morrison Stadium with a 7:00 pm start time, as announced today by the NCAA.

"Obviously you want the opportunity to compete for a national championship," Head Coach Tom McIntosh said. "It is hard to get into the NCAA Championship, there were some good teams left out, but fortunately for us, we won our conference championship and didn't have to wait for the selections.  It is a goal of our program, we want to compete in the NCAA tournament every year, and we've been able to do that pretty consistently over the last 10 years."

Tulsa earned the American Athletic Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after tying USF and claiming the title on penalty kicks, 4-2. Creighton earned an at-large bid after falling to Butler (2-1) in the Big East Championship game.

Tulsa and then #6-ranked Creighton met earlier this year with the Golden Hurricane picking up a 2-1 win at home on October 11. The Bluejays have a 17-10-3 lead in the all-time series over the Golden Hurricane.

"Creighton is a very good team, good in possession, well organized and have some weapons that can hurt you going forward," McIntosh said.  "The first game here was very open, both teams created several chances and I expect much of the same on Thursday."

This is Tulsa's third-straight NCAA appearance, 11th overall and eighth in the last 10 years. TU has a 9-9-2 mark in the tournament, making quarterfinal appearances in 2004 and 2009. A year ago, Tulsa failed to advance in the tournament after tying Notre Dame, 1-1, and then trailing 3-0 in the penalty kick shootout in the second round.

The Golden Hurricane has a 10-4-5 overall record and concluded The American play with a 4-2-1 mark.  Tulsa has tallied 32 goals this season from 13 different players, including a team-best eight goals by freshman Matthew Puig.  Senior Ray Saari adds five scores, while sophomore Jacob Gooden has four goals.  TU also has 27 assists from 12 players, including four each from junior Rollie Rocha, senior Quinton Duncan and Saari.

Senior Jake McGuire has played all 1815:30 in goal, picked up 60 saves and has six shutouts on the season.  He has tallied a 0.99 goals-against average and a .750 saves percentage.

Creighton has an 11-6-3 overall record and finished third in the Big East this season. The Bluejays are led by Riggs Lennon with 10 goals, while Ricky Lopez-Espin has nine scores and Myles Englis has six. Alex Kapp has recorded seven shutouts and a 0.77 goals-against average this season.

The winner of the Tulsa-Creighton game will play Kentucky in the NCAA Second Round on Sunday, November 20.