DALLAS – SMU Men's Soccer is no stranger to making the NCAA Tournament. And this weekend, the Mustangs will participate in an Elite Eight contest for the 14th time in program history.
The Mustangs' last NCAA Quarterfinals appearance was in 2019. Now, five years later, Kevin Hudson is guiding the team into one of its biggest showdowns in Dallas.
"It's exciting to have this game on our campus. To have a chance to play in front of friends and family one last time for the seniors at home is a special moment," Hudson said.
The 12th-seeded Mustangs (12-2-6 overall) are hosting No. 13 Seed Marshall (13-1-7) at 6 p.m. at Washburne Soccer and Track Stadium on Saturday. The winner moves on to the semifinals of the NCAA College Cup on December 13 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.
The pressure of a win-or-go-home situation can weigh heavy on a team. Fortunately, Hudson and the SMU coaching staff have been in familiar surroundings since the team's Sweet 16 victory at Dayton last Saturday.
Over the last week, the coaches have done their best to treat the upcoming contest with the same business-as-usual approach of a regular season game.
"We made the decision to trust what we've done all year and to continue to train and prepare the team the way that we've done since August," Hudson said. "That has produced positive results for the year, so making massive changes at this time would be a little naïve."
While they've attempted to keep things as normal as possible, Hudson knows the intensity will be elevated once the whistle blows and the clock starts ticking.
Fortunately, the Mustangs will be in familiar territory and able to draw on the home crowd for support. Washburne Stadium has regularly been among the country's most hostile environments, helping the program find an abundance of success during the school's transition to the ACC, one of the country's best soccer conferences. SMU's record at home during the 2024 campaign finished at 9-1-5. The nine home wins are tied for second most in the conference behind just Clemson (12).
One more match in Dallas, in front of a frenzied audience, is something everyone in the program is certainly looking forward to.
"The team feeds off the energy of the crowd, so you can tell when there's momentum and there's energy and there's a buzz in the stadium that the team feels it and then we play better," Hudson said. "The crowd has been great this year and we expect a big one on Saturday night."
