Anderson Men’s Soccer Captures 2024 HCAC Tournament Title

The Anderson University men's soccer team captured the 2024 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) Tournament title after defeating Hanover College in the HCAC Tournament Championship game on Saturday in Hanover.

Anderson captured the program's third HCAC Tournament crown since the program's establishment in 1989. The Ravens also secured HCAC Tournament titles in 2000 and 2002, but since Anderson's first two titles were prior to the establishment of automatic qualifiers in men's soccer, Anderson will also be making the program's first ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament next week.

"Well, where do I start? What a day for the Ravens," Coach Scott Fridley said. "This has been a long time coming, I can't tell you how proud I am of these young men and my coaching staff. Everyone has done a great job on this season and the day. My staff is basically all volunteers and give so much of their time to this team and its success.  Coach Derrick Spires (our structural specialist) and the staff have really done an awesome job."

Fourth-seeded Anderson (8-7-5) battled second-seeded Hanover (9-5-5) for 110 minutes and the result was a scoreless tie.

"We felt the first 25 minutes were pretty even and were going according to plan. Then we had a couple injuries that shook us up a little and our structure was having issues. [Hanover Head Coach] Matt Wilkerson does a really good job with his boys, they were well prepared for the day."

In the second half, Hanover heightened the offensive aggressiveness while Anderson was fighting attrition.

"We got into the second half and Hanover turned things up and really put pressure on us. We didn't handle it very well and just went into survival mode.  Our defense and our keeper were just simply fantastic. Kennedy has been unbelievable and really locked in between the pipes."

The HCAC Tournament Championship all came down to penalty kicks. Each team gets five penalty kick opportunities and any ties after round five become sudden death rounds.

"When we got into penalties we felt like we were in a good place between quality shooters and a quality keeper."

Anderson began each round. Drew Vaughn led off for the Ravens. Vaughn went middle left on his kick. Hanover goalkeeper Ben Howard had the correct read, but was just a little late as the shot deflected off his hands for the conversion.

Hanover's Mateus Da Mota Correia De Araujo took his turn and evened the score with a low-left conversion.

Dalton Grubbs put the Ravens up 2-1. He shot in the upper left and the goalkeeper missed the read. Braydon Kennedy came up with a key save to put the Ravens up 2-1 through two rounds. Charlie Hubert went to the lower right with his shot and Kennedy came up with the save.

Noah Neu put Anderson up 3-1. He delivered his shot to the lower right and the goalkeeper missed the read. Preston Barber cut Hanover's deficit to 3-2 after shooting a conversion to the lower right and the goalkeeper missing the read.

The Panthers had the opportunity to tie in the fourth round after Emmett Kindler's shot hit the left post. Kennedy however came up with another key save to keep the Ravens ahead 3-2. Omar Dizdar took his shot to the lower left and the conversion was saved.

Ashton Kuss came up in the fifth round with an opportunity to clinch the win. He fired his shot to the upper right. The goalkeeper's read was good, but the shot was above the save and Anderson clinched the conference title, winning the penalty-kick round 4-2.

"The boys stepped up and hit 4 of 5 while Kennedy made 2 big saves. I am so proud of all the boys and what they all invested into this season and game. It was a great Championship atmosphere with many nail-biting moments."

Hanover outshot Anderson 23-1 and held an 8-0 advantage in shots on goal. Kennedy pitched a seven-save shutout while Vaughn added a defensive save. Grubbs tallied a shot for the Ravens. Kennedy and Grubbs shared the team lead of four intercepts while Vaughn and Jaxon Gillig shared the team lead of two steals.

Kuss and Kennedy shared the title of The Raven's Raven, awarded to the team MVP of the match.

Kennedy was named the HCAC Tournament MVP. In three matches, Kennedy surrendered just one goal, which was off a penalty kick in the semifinal against top-seeded Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (10-5-3). Kennedy posted a four-save shutout against fifth-seeded Berea College (5-13-2). Throughout the tournament, Kennedy saved 13-of-14 shots for a .929 save percentage. Kennedy led the Ravens with five intercepts against Rose-Hulman and shared the team lead with seven intercepts against Berea. He closed the tournament with 16 intercepts.

Vaughn, Grubbs and Cohen Wintin also joined Kennedy on the HCAC All-Tournament Team. Vaughn shared the team lead with seven intercepts against Berea. He also provided an assist against Rose-Hulman.

Grubbs netted the game-winning goal in the opening round against Berea. Both Vaughn and Grubbs converted their penalty kicks against Hanover.

Wintin earned his all-tournament selection after netting both of Anderson's goals as the Ravens took down Rose-Hulman 2-1 in the semifinal.

"I think it is fitting for the four boys that made the all-tournament team."

Anderson awaits its NCAA Tournament draw as the NCAA D-III Men's Soccer Selection Show begins on Monday at 1:30 p.m.