Following a rash of upsets on Friday night — the top five teams in the Soccer America Men's Top 25 all lost — the men's regular season concluded with 20 conference champions.
(The NCAA Men's Division I draw will be announced at 4:30 pm ET on ESPN News.)
Sunday saw two conference tournaments end with Top 25 clashes.
No. 10 Maryland beat No. 11 Virginia, 3-0, thanks to Abe Thompson's hat trick (including two penalty kicks) to take the ACC title.
Boston College keeper Kyle Singer held off a furious attack by No. 8 Connecticut to give the No. 15 Eagles a 3-2 victory in the Big East final.
Five teams secured their first NCAA tournament berth with conference titles.
In the wildest ending, Holy Cross beat Lehigh, 10-9, on penalty kicks after their Patriot League final ended 0-0.
Northeastern beat Vermont, 2-1, on Atha Kirkopoulos' goal in the 88th minute to take the America East championship.
Koyondome Koyagialo's goal early in the second half gave UCF a 1-0 win over Stetson and take the Atlantic Sun title.
Francis Wakhisi's overtime goal gave Winthrop a 1-0 victory over No. 20 Coastal Carolina in the Big South final.
Oakland beat Western Illinois, 3-0, on three second-half goals to take the Mid-Continent title.
No. 7 Furman set one NCAA record and closed in on another with a 3-0 win over UNC Greensboro in the Southern Conference semifinals. The win extended the Paladins' unbeaten streak in conference play to a record 43 games. The win also extended Furman's shutout streak to nine games (852 minutes), the fourth longest in NCAA history. The other Southern Conference semifinal between VMI and Davidson and the final were canceled due to unplayable conditions in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. Furman was declared the conference champion.
The most impressive performance was by No. 17 Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which won its 18th straight game with an 8-0 win over Cleveland State in the Horizon final. Chad Dombrowski had a hat trick, and brothers Chad and Tighe also scored for the Panthers.
No. 16 Creighton won the Missouri Valley title with a 1-0 win over Bradley on Matt Jewett's goal at 60:05. Jason Cole's goal in the 77th minute gave No. 21 Saint Louis a 3-2 win over Cincinnati in the Conference USA final.
Junior defender Milorad Djordjevic scored his first career goal in the 69th minute to give No. 25 Virginia Commonwealth a 2-1 victory over William & Mary in a battle of top seeds in the CAA title game.
No. 5 Cal's loss to Washington Friday night opened the door for No. 6 UCLA to win the Pac-10 title. The Bruins beat Fresno State, 3-1, Sunday. Cal fell for the second time in three days when it lost to Oregon State, 3-0.
No. 18 Portland won the other conference title to go to the regular-season champion when it captured its first outright WCC title since 1988 with a 1-0 win over Gonzaga. Any hopes No. 13 Loyola Marymount had of winning the WCC ended when it lost to Santa Clara, 3-0.
In other conference finals, Penn State won its first Big Ten title since 1993 with a 2-1 win over Michigan, which was missing star Knox Cameron (on U-20 duty).
Fourth-seeded George Washington won its first Atlantic 10 championship with a 3-2 win over second-seeded Duquesne. GW's Icelandic star, Arnar Johannsson, had a goal and an assist in the final and a hat trick in the 4-3 semifinal win over top seed Massachusetts.
Loyola (Md.) repeated as MAAC champion with a 2-1 victory over Marist.
Akron and Bowling Green met in the Mid-American final for the fourth time in eight years. UA prevailed this year, 4-1, ending No. 1 seed Bowling Green's hopes to making the NCAA tournament with a losing record (6-13-0).
New Mexico earned its second straight trip to the NCAA tournament with a 2-1 overtime victory against San Jose State thanks to freshman sensation Ben Ashwill's golden goal.
Fairleigh Dickinson captured its third consecutive Northeast title as the third-seeded Knights battled top-seeded Long Island, 4-3 on penalty kicks, after their game ended in a 0-0 tie. Last year, the Knights beat LIU in four overtimes to take the final.
