AACC will host a men’s and women’s soccer tournament this month.
The National Junior College Athletic Association is holding the Region 20 Division II tournament at AACC for men’s and women’s soccer starting Oct. 19. Both soccer teams will need to qualify in order to play.
“It’s going to come down to head-to-head matchups in the division,” Athletic Director Duane Herr said. “It’s based on record.”
The eight teams that qualify for the tournament will play in a knockout format. The team that wins the final game of the regional goes to the national championship.
The Riverhawks made it to the women’s regional final last year, but lost 2-1 to Community College of Baltimore County Essex with one second left in overtime. The women’s team started its fall 2024 season with a 1-0 loss to Harford Community College in late September.
“You have to finish within the top eight places in Division II,” men’s soccer head coach Drew Belcher said. “If you fall outside the top eight … [you] don’t … make it” to the tournament.
AACC’s men’s team won the Region 20 tournament in 2022 against Prince George’s Community College.
Drew Belcher was the assistant coach for the men’s team and Nick Cosentino, who left the college this summer after 18 years with the Riverhawks, was head coach at the time.
The men’s Riverhawks started the fall 2024 season 0-3, including a 12-0 loss to Harford Community College.
Still, Belcher said the team can “100%” qualify for the home-field tournament.
Returning left-winger Brian Guillen, a second-year business transfer studies student, agreed.
“It’s been a rough start, but … we’re getting there,” Guillen said. “Once we are there, we’ll be rolling.”
The national tournament will be in Alabama on Nov. 17.