2020 Sun Belt Conference men's soccer tournament

2020 Sun Belt Conference men's soccer tournament
Classification	Division I
Teams	4
Matches	3
Attendance	973
Site	Center Parc Stadium Atlanta, Georgia
Champions	Coastal Carolina (16th title)
Winning coach	Shaun Docking (11th title)
MVP	Tor Saunders (Coastal Carolina)
Broadcast	ESPN+
Sun Belt Conference men's soccer tournament «2019  2022»

2020 Sun Belt Conference men's fall soccer standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 23 Coastal Carolina ‡	5	–	1	–	0			6	–	2	–	1
Georgia State	4	–	2	–	0			9	–	2	–	2
Central Arkansas	3	–	3	–	0			4	–	6	–	2
Georgia Southern	0	–	6	–	0			1	–	9	–	0
‡ – 2020 Sun Belt Tournament Champion + – Also invited to the 2020 NCAA tournament Note: † Due to COVID-19, Howard has suspended the 2020 men's soccer season. As of March 2, 2021 Rankings from United Soccer Coaches

The 2020 Sun Belt Conference men's soccer tournament was the 26th edition of the Sun Belt Conference Men's Soccer Tournament. The tournament decided the Sun Belt Conference (SBC) champion. The tournament began on November 11 and concluded on November 15, 2020.

Georgia State hosted the tournament, which consisted solely of a semifinal and final round. Coastal Carolina successfully defended their SBC Tournament championship, defeating Georgia State in penalties in the final.

The Sun Belt shuttered its men's soccer league after all of its members moved the sport to other conferences by the end of the 2020–21 school year. The conference had lost one men's soccer team before the season when full conference member Appalachian State dropped men's soccer in May 2020, citing financial impacts from COVID-19.^[1] That July saw associate member Howard announce that it would become an associate member of the Northeast Conference in six sports, with men's soccer being one of four sports moving in July 2021.^[2] In January 2021 the ASUN Conference announced three schools as incoming full members, including Sun Belt men's soccer associate Central Arkansas.^[3] The following month saw full Sun Belt member Coastal Carolina announce that it would become a single-sport member of Conference USA, joining another in-state associate member in South Carolina.^[4] This left Georgia Southern and Georgia State, both full Sun Belt members, as the conference's only remaining men's soccer programs, and those two schools announced they would move that sport to the Mid-American Conference in late May 2021.^[5]

However, following a major conference realignment that brought three new men's soccer schools (James Madison, Marshall, and Old Dominion) to the conference, SBC commissioner Keith Gill announced on November 1, 2021 that men's soccer would be reinstated no later than 2023.^[6] With all three schools joining in 2022 instead of the originally intended 2023 timeline, the SBC announced on April 6, 2022 that men's soccer would instead return in 2022.^[7]

Background

Main article: 2020 Sun Belt Conference men's soccer season

The tournament served as the culmination of the SBC's regular season, which was extensively modified due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Four of the five SBC teams played in 2020, under a modified six-match conference season (three home, three away). All teams qualified for the SBC Tournament.^[8]

Seeds

Seed	School	Conference	Tiebreaker
1	Coastal Carolina	5–1–0
2	Georgia State	4–2–0
3	Central Arkansas	3–3–0
4	Georgia Southern	0–6–0

Bracket

	Semifinals					Finals
	1	Coastal Carolina	6
	4	Georgia Southern	0
						1	Coastal Carolina	0 (4)
						2	Georgia State	0 (3)
	2	Georgia State	1 (4)
	3	Central Arkansas	1 (2)

Schedule

Semifinals

November 13, 2020 (2020-11-13)

4:00 p.m.

No. 1 Coastal Carolina	6–0	No. 4 Georgia Southern
Marcelo Lage 30', 64' Marcello Jones 63', 67' Esteban Leiva 72', 84' Ethan Hackenberg  89'	Report	Thomas Jackson  17'

Center Parc Stadium, Atlanta

Attendance: 233

Referee: David Erbacher

---

November 13, 2020 (2020-11-13)

7:00 p.m.

No. 2 Georgia State	1–1 (a.e.t.)	No. 3 Central Arkansas
Matthew Rios  39' Jeryn Hodge  64' Alex Henderson 87' Simon Carlson  107'	Report	Alberto Suarez 7' Daishi Uekuri  82'
Penalties
Simon Carlson Ross Finnie Matthew Fearnley George Proctor	4–2	Alberto Suarez Edoardo Merci Kasper Andersen Soren Jensen

Center Parc Stadium, Atlanta

Attendance: 328

Referee: Amin Hadzic

Final

November 15, 2020 (2020-11-15)

1:00 p.m.

No. 1 Coastal Carolina	0–0 (a.e.t.)	No. 2 Georgia State
DZ Harmon  28' Ethan Hackenberg  110'	Report	Matthew Fearnley  23' George Proctor  52' Carlos Luna  64'
Penalties
Emile Rzepecki Claudio Repetto Esteban Leiva Connor Pugh DZ Harmon	4–3	Simon Carlson Ross Finnie Matthew Fearnley Gunther Rankenburg Carlos Luna

Center Parc Stadium, Atlanta

Attendance: 412

Referee: Sergii Demianchuk

Statistics

Goalscorers

2 Goals

• Marcello Jones – Coastal Carolina
• Marcelo Lage – Coastal Carolina
• Esteban Leiva – Coastal Carolina

1 Goal

• Alex Henderson – Georgia State
• Alberto Suarez – Central Arkansas

Honors

All Tournament Team

• Sam Allardyce, Georgia Southern
• Adam Davie, Georgia Southern
• Matthew Fearnley, Georgia State
• Alex Henderson, Georgia State
• Ole Kjoerholt, Central Arkansas
• Marcello Jones, Coastal Carolina
• Marcelo Lage, Coastal Carolina
• Esteban Leiva, Coastal Carolina
• Ramon, Munoz, Georgia State
• Alberto Suarez, Central Arkansas
• Tor Saunders, Coastal Carolina

References

1. "App State drops men's soccer and two other men's programs". Soccer America. May 26, 2020. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
2. "Six Howard Athletics Programs Join the Northeast Conference as Associate Members" (Press release). Howard Bison. July 6, 2020. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
3. "ASUN Conference Announces Three New Institutions; Adds Football as 20th Sport" (Press release). ASUN Conference. January 29, 2021. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
4. "Coastal Carolina Added as Men's Soccer Member" (Press release). Conference USA. February 25, 2021. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
5. "Georgia Southern, Georgia State Added As Affiliate Members in Men's Soccer" (Press release). Mid-American Conference. May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
6. Traylor, Grant (November 1, 2021). "Sun Belt confirms men's soccer being reinstated". The Herald-Dispatch. Huntington, WV. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
7. "Sun Belt Conference Announces Return of Men's Soccer This Fall" (Press release). Sun Belt Conference. April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
8. "2020-21 Championships Schedule". Sun Belt Conference. Retrieved September 7, 2020.

External links

• Sun Belt Tournament