2022 WAC men's soccer tournament

2022 WAC men's soccer tournament
Classification	Division I
Teams	6
Matches	5
Attendance	3,911
Site	CBU Soccer Field Riverside, California
Champions	California Baptist (1st title)
Winning coach	Coe Michaelson (1st title)
MVP	Nolan Premack (California Baptist)
Broadcast	ESPN+
WAC men's soccer tournament «2021   2023»

2022 Western Athletic Conference men's soccer standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
Air Force	7	–	1	–	1			8	–	6	–	3
San Jose State	5	–	2	–	2			10	–	5	–	4
Seattle	5	–	4	–	0			7	–	10	–	1
Utah Valley	5	–	4	–	0			7	–	8	–	1
California Baptist†	4	–	3	–	2			10	–	7	–	4
Grand Canyon	4	–	3	–	2			7	–	8	–	3
Texas–Rio Grande Valley	4	–	4	–	1			7	–	7	–	3
Utah Tech #	2	–	5	–	2			4	–	12	–	2
Houston Christian	1	–	5	–	3			5	–	8	–	6
UNLV	0	–	6	–	3			1	–	9	–	7
† – 2022 WAC Tournament Champion + – At-large invitation to the 2022 NCAA Tournament # – Ineligible (In transition) As of December 13, 2022 Rankings from United Soccer Coaches Source: WAC

The 2022 Western Athletic Conference men's soccer tournament was the postseason men's soccer tournament for the Western Athletic Conference held from November 9 to November 13, 2022. The five-match tournament took place at CBU Soccer Field in Riverside, California on the campus of California Baptist University. The six-team single-elimination tournament consisted of three rounds based on seeding from regular-season divisional conference play. The defending champions were the Seattle Redhawks. ^[1] Seattle was unable to defend their crown, falling 4–0 to San Jose State in the Semifinals. California Baptist went on to win the title in a penalty shoot-out against San Jose State. ^[2] This was California Baptist's first WAC Tournament victory in program history and first for head coach Coe Michaelson. ^[3] As tournament champions, California Baptist earned the WAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Seeding

Six of the ten Western Athletic Conference men's soccer programs qualified for the 2022 Tournament. Teams were seeded based on their regular season records. Tiebreakers were used to determine the seedings of teams who finished with identical conference records. A tiebreaker was required to determine the third and fourth seeds as both Seattle and Utah Valley finished with identical 5–4–0 records during the regular season. Seattle earned the third seed by virtue of their 1–0 victory over Utah Valley on October 21 during the regular season. A second tiebreaker was required to determine the fifth and sixth seeds after California Baptist and Grand Canyon finished with identical 4–3–2 regular season records. The two teams tied their regular season match, 0–0 on October 9. California Baptist earned the fifth seed while Grand Canyon was the sixth seed. ^[4]

Seed	School	Conference Record	Points
1	Air Force	7–1–1	22
2	San Jose State	5–2–2	17
3	Seattle	5–4–0	15
4	Utah Valley	5–4–0	15
5	California Baptist	4–3–2	14
6	Grand Canyon	4–3–2	14

Bracket

	First round Wednesday, Nov. 9					Semifinals Friday, Nov. 11					Final Sunday, Nov. 13
						1	Air Force	0
	4	Utah Valley	1			5	California Baptist	2
	5	California Baptist	3								5	California Baptist (pen.)	0 (3)
											2	San Jose State	0 (1)
						2	San Jose State	4
	3	Seattle	2			3	Seattle	0
	6	Grand Canyon	1

Schedule

First round

#3 Seattle v #6 Grand Canyon

November 9	#3 Seattle	2–1	#6 Grand Canyon	Riverside, CA
4:00 p.m. PT	Habib Barry 32' Christian Koontz  37' Jesse Ortiz  45' Campbell Strong 66' Taketo Onodera  89'	Report	13' Team Shaun Joash 63' (pen.)	Stadium: CBU Soccer Field Attendance: 117

#4 Utah Valley v #5 California Baptist

November 9	#4 Utah Valley	1–3	#5 California Baptist	Riverside, CA
7:00 p.m. PT	Aaron Nixon 31'	Report	8',  34' Adolfo Pino  51', 64' Leo Mendez 70' Luis Mueller	Stadium: CBU Soccer Field Attendance: 953

Semifinals

#2 San Jose State v #3 Seattle

November 11	#2 San Jose State	4–0	#3 Seattle	Riverside, CA
1:00 p.m. PT	Josh Redfield  17' Ryota Nakashima 33' Finlay Wood 34' (pen.) Joel Garcia  67' Anthony Guzman 86', 87'	Report	22' Christian Koontz  51' Bailey Letherman  67' Mo Mohamed	Stadium: CBU Soccer Field Attendance: 268

#1 Air Force v #5 California Baptist

November 11	#1 Air Force	0–2	#5 California Baptist	Riverside, CA
4:00 p.m. PT	Tyler Johnson  83'	Report	56',  83' Bryan Iliohan 65' Leo Mendez  84' Nolan Premack	Stadium: CBU Soccer Field Attendance: 1,157

Final

#2 San Jose State v #5 California Baptist

November 13	#2 San Jose State	0–0 (a.e.t.) (1–3 p)	#5 California Baptist	Riverside, CA
1:00 p.m. PT	David Sweeney  10' Mario Barocio  43' Diego Delgadillo  53'	Report	38' Anthony Vargas  41' Antonio Gomez  69' Georg Bjarnson	Stadium: CBU Soccer Field
	Penalties
	Finlay Wood Kasper Poulsgaard Athony Guzman Herminio Padilla		Bryan Iliohan Anthony Vargas Luis Mueller

Statistics

Goalscorers

There were 13 goals scored in 5 matches, for an average of 2.6 goals per match.

2 goals

• Leo Mendez – California Baptist
• Anthony Guzman – San Jose State

1 goal

• Bryan Iliohan – California Baptist
• Luis Mueller – California Baptist
• Adolfo Pino – California Baptist
• Shaun Joash – Grand Canyon
• Joel Garcia – San Jose State
• Ryota Nakashima – San Jose State
• Christian Kootnz – Seattle
• Campbell Strong – Seattle
• Aaron Nixon – Utah Valley

All-Tournament team

Source: ^[5]

Player	Team
Thomas Beecham	California Baptist
Antonio Gomez
Leo Mendez
Nolan Premack
Shaun Joash	Grand Canyon
Anthony Guzman	San Jose State
Kasper Poulsgaard
Finlay Wood
Peter Kingston	Seattle
Taketo Onodera

MVP in bold

References

1. Western Athletic Conference. "2021 WAC Men's Soccer Tournament" . Retrieved March 5, 2022.
2. Pope, Dennis (November 13, 2022). "California Baptist University men's soccer team captures WAC tournament title". The Press-Enterprise . Retrieved July 22, 2023.
3. Western Athletic Conference. "2022 Men's Soccer Record Book" (PDF). Retrieved July 22, 2023.
4. "WACMSoc22Release12" (PDF). wacsports.com. Western Athletic Conference. November 8, 2022. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
5. "No. 5 CBU Wins 2022 WAC Men's Soccer Championship". wacsports.com. Western Athletic Conference. November 13, 2022. Retrieved July 22, 2023.