Pride men's soccer secures first NAIA Tournament bid in program history

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Continuing what has been the best season in program history, the Clarke University men's soccer team was officially included in the NAIA Tournament field, NAIA officials announced on Saturday afternoon.

Full NAIA Tournament Field Announcement: https://www.naia.org/sports/msoc/2024-25/Releases/Qualifiers

The Pride, who currently hold an 11-5-1 overall record, were placed as the No. 16 overall seed in the 40-team field as they will head straight to the Second Round to face Spring Arbor University on the Cougars home field of the Cougar Soccer Complex in Spring Arbor, Mich. on Nov. 23 with a start time still to be determined.

Full NAIA Tournament First and Second Round Schedules: https://www.naia.org/sports/msoc/2024-25/Releases/1st_2nd_Round_Results#springarbor

Clarke men's soccer finished in third place in the Heart of America Athletic Conference and advanced to the Heart Tournament Semifinals for the first time in program history as they were led by the conference's leading goal scorer, Luke Persenico, who scored a CU school record 19 goals so far in 2024, good for the four-most goals in the NAIA this season.

With next Saturday's game between the Pride and Cougars already being in the second round, the winner of that game will advance to the Round of 16 and the final site of Wichita, Kan. for those rounds to start on Dec. 2 at the Scheels Stryker Sports Complex.

Tickets to the Second Round game at SAU will be announced by Spring Arbor soon as the Cougar Sports Network: https://saucougars.com/sports/2020/6/2/csn.aspx, will stream the game with live stats to be available either at www.saucougars.com or www.clarkepride.com.