BURLINGTON, Vt. – Following a scoreless first half, Vermont men’s soccer tallied three goals over the final 35 minutes of action in front of a home sellout crowd of over 2,500 to take down UCLA 3-0 in the NCAA Round of 16 on Saturday evening.
The Catamounts now advance to the NCAA Quarterfinals next weekend where they will play Syracuse on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. UVM played the Orange to a 1-1 draw in September. The contest will be played on ESPN+.
Updated NCAA Bracket
UVM is the second America East program since 2014 to advance to the NCAA Quarterfinals, joining UMBC (2014). This marks the second time in program history the Catamounts have reached the quarterfinals, with the first coming back in 1989 when they fell to Rutgers.
It was a scoreless first half with UVM holding a slight 4-3 edge in shots, thought UCLA had two more corner kicks (5-3).
Yaniv Bazini gave the Catamounts the only lead they would need at 55:07 as he dribbled through multiple defenders before firing a shot into the back of the net. Yves Borie made it a 2-0 advantage 14 minutes later and Alex Nagy finished off the scoring in the 86th minute to provide the final margin of victory.
Nate Silveira made two saves in net to earn his ninth shutout of the season as UVM improved to 16-3-2 with the victory.
Follow @AmericaEast on Twitter and Instagram to follow Vermont’s journey through the NCAA tournament and use #AEMSOC hashtag to join the conversation.
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