Men's Soccer to Face No. 23 UNC Greensboro in Sunday Night Tilt

ORLANDO – With its first win of the 2025 fall slate secured, the UCF men’s soccer team will close its two-match homestand with a Sunday evening tilt against the No. 23 UNC Greensboro Spartans at the UCF Soccer Complex Aug. 31.

The Black and Gold bring momentum into their second match against a ranked opponent this season, having earned a convincing 4-0 shutout win against the UTRGV Vaqueros in their 2025 home-opener Wednesday, Aug. 27.

The winning effort moved UCF to 2-0-0 all-time against UTRGV and clinched the program’s sixth home-opening victory in nine tries under head coach Scott Calabrese. The team also improved to 45-21-11 at home in the Calabrese era in matching the largest margin of victory in a home-opener in that span, joining the Knights’ 4-0 triumph over Stetson in the program’s first home match under Calabrese Oct. 4, 2017.

The squad saw tallies from Malick Thiaw, Claudel N’goubou, Lilian Ricol and Seiryu Ono in supporting the clean sheet, with one save by goalkeeper Juanvi Muñoz, as well as another by freshman defender Jem Hewlett in the closing stages, to keep the Vaqueros scoreless throughout.

The goals by Thiaw, N’goubou and Ono marked each player’s respective first score as a Knight, with Ricol netting his second goal in the season’s first three games. Thiaw recorded his first career game-winning goal in breaking the ice in the 14th minute as well, while N’goubou’s highlight-reel back-heel redirect score in the 27th minute was selected as the No. 9 play on ESPN Sportscenter’s Top 10 Plays the next morning.

UCF’s 4-0 win also marked the team’s third victory of at least a four-goal margin in the last two seasons, joining the Knights’ 4-0 clean sheet against South Carolina Nov. 1, 2024 and their 5-1 win over UC Irvine Sept. 6, 2024.

“We learned a lot about ourselves, mentally, physically, what we can do and accomplish,” sophomore Gwen Degorce said of the team’s season-opening road trip. “There were a lot of good things that we kept from those games as well, and we put all of them together and it gave us an amazing result (Wednesday).”

The shutout marked Muñoz’s first of the season and eighth of his career, moving the senior into a tie for 10th on the program’s all-time shutouts list with Tuomas Tuomilehto. He also saw his career goals-against average drop to 1.28 through his first 40 matches, good for a share of eighth on UCF’s respective all-time list with Ryan McIntosh.

Senior midfielder Clarence Awoudor also recorded his first multi-assist showing of the season Wednesday and fourth such match of his career after ranking second in the Sun Belt with seven total assists a season ago.

His effort produced two of five Knights assists during the contest, the team’s highest single-game total since the team recorded five in a 3-2 road win at Georgia State Oct. 27, 2023. UCF now enters its Sunday contest ranking second in the Sun Belt and 24th nationally with six through three games.

The team’s next match Sunday will present its second opportunity this season to earn a result against a ranked opponent after the Knights fell in a slim 2-1 defeat at then-No. 6 Wake Forest Aug. 24.

The Spartans, after beginning the season unranked, jumped to No. 23 in the United Soccer Coaches week one national top 25 after producing a pair of dominant victories over Radford, 6-2 Aug. 21, and VCU, 3-2 Aug. 24.

A Sunday win would mark the program’s first over a ranked foe since the Knights stunned then-No. 9 Clemson on the road, 2-1, in the teams’ 2023 season-opener Aug. 24, a victory that helped push the Black and Gold into the United Soccer Coaches top 25 for the remainder of the season. It would also improve UCF’s all-time record against UNC Greensboro to 2-0-1 in the teams’ first meeting since 1997.

The Spartans, winners of the SoCon’s 2024 regular-season title and No. 1 conference tournament seed, are led this season by junior forward Enzo Dovlo, who has already accrued 11 points through three matches with a team-best five goals and one assist.

He recorded a season-opening brace in his team’s win over Radford and followed with a hat trick against VCU, scoring all three of the Spartans’ goals.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. from the UCF Soccer Complex Sunday night and will be streamed on ESPN+.

TICKETS
UCF men’s soccer season and single-game tickets are on sale now. Please visit ucfknights.com/tickets for more information or call the ticket office at (407) 823-1000.

ABOUT UCF ATHLETICS
UCF is a proud member of the Big 12 Conference. Our mission is to positively transform the lives of our students academically, athletically, and personally through a nationally competitive intercollegiate athletics program that enhances the reputation and visibility of the University. We strive to be Florida's preeminent athletic program representing UCF and our community with distinction on the national stage as "Orlando's Hometown Team". To learn more about UCF and Athletics, please visit our websites at www.ucf.edu and www.ucfknights.com.