Entering his 10th season on staff and his ninth as the associate head coach alongside head coach Scott Calabrese, Paul Souders has played an instrumental role in solidifying UCF's status as one of the strongest programs not only in one of the premier men’s soccer leagues in the nation, but among the country’s best overall.
The Knights in 2025 took a lofty step forward in their third season as a member of the Sun Belt Conference, rising to the top of the league for the first time with a dominant 3-0 showing throughout the Sun Belt Conference Tournament to claim the program’s first league championship since joining the Sun Belt prior to the 2023 season.
UCF recorded its second double-digit-win season in the last three years with a final 11-7-3 mark in 2025, a campaign that saw the program overcome a slow start to finish as one of the hottest teams in college soccer with a 9-2-2 mark in its final 13 matches.
In claiming the fifth conference tournament title and eighth overall conference championship in program history, UCF recorded the program’s first Sun Belt Conference Tournament win, first multi-goal postseason comeback win since 2018, first postseason clean sheet since 2021, first postseason win over a ranked opponent since 2021, and first win over a No. 1 seed in a conference tournament.
The team’s winning efforts over then-No. 11 Georgia Southern Oct. 10, then-No. 19 Kentucky Nov. 12 and then-No. 12 Marshall Nov. 16 also clinched the first season in program history with at least three ranked wins.
UCF’s efforts clinched hosting honors for the first round of the NCAA Tournament, a contest the Knights won over Florida Atlantic by a 3-2 final score before a record crowd of 1,358 at the UCF Soccer Complex Nov. 20.
Among those recognized in postseason honors included Lilian Ricol (Sun Belt Conference Newcomer of the Year, All-Sun Belt Conference First Team), Clarence Awoudor (All-Sun Belt Conference First Team), Jem Hewlett (All-Sun Belt Conference Freshman Team) and Seiryu Ono (All-Sun Belt Conference Freshman Team). Ricol and Awoudor both garnered United Soccer Coaches First Team All-Region recognition, and Awoudor earned a spot on the United Soccer Coaches’ Third Team All-America list as well.
Awoudor finished his season as the NCAA Division I national leader with his 15 assists, setting a new UCF single-season program record as well, while Ricol’s 13 goals scored and 20 total points ranked second most in the Sun Belt overall in helping lead their squad through its conference title run.
Through three seasons in the Sun Belt, the Knights now boast an aggregate .604 win percentage over the last three seasons overall, including two 10-plus-win seasons, two NCAA Tournament appearances, one Sun Belt Conference championship, six United Soccer Coaches All-Region selections, nine All-Conference picks, and four major conference award winners.
The Knights in 2024 concluded their second campaign with at least seven wins since joining the Sun Belt prior to the 2023 season, and in just two years in the conference have accumulated one MLS SuperDraft selection (Anderson Rosa), three major conference post-season award winners (Calabrese – 2023 Coach of the Year; Clarence Awoudor – 2023 Newcomer of the Year; Saku Heiskanen – 2023 Freshman of the Year), seven All-Conference selections, four United Soccer Coaches All-Region appointments, and two top-three regular-season conference finishes.
UCF has also demonstrated its ability to compete with the nation’s best in that span, going undefeated in four of its eight contests against ranked opponents with each match finishing with a score margin of two or fewer goals.
On the heels of the team’s seven-win 2024 slate, UCF boasts an aggregate .609 win percentage in its first two seasons in the Sun Belt, accompanied by a dominant 10-4-2 mark in 2023 that saw the Black and Gold, most notably, earn the first national No. 1 ranking, and later unanimous national No. 1 ranking, in a regular-season poll of any athletics program in school history.
The Knights’ depth was on display throughout the fall ‘24 campaign, as 13 different players scored at least one goal, highlighted by a pair of braces by players in their first collegiate seasons and a hat trick by one of the more prolific goal-scorers in program history, Lucca Dourado.
Dourado and fellow senior Jonas Fritschi both earned in-season league honors as well, garnering Sun Belt Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week for their efforts in UCF’s 4-0 win over South Carolina on Senior Night. The pair joined Zane Bubb, Juanvi Muñoz and Robbie Soronellas as the fourth and fifth players in the last two seasons to be recognized in the league’s weekly honors.
Souders, who played a pivotal role in bringing Dourado and Rosa to Orlando prior to their respective collegiate debuts in the 2020-21 season along with Calabrese, saw Rosa complete his college career without missing a single match. The defender finished the 2024 season as the program’s all-time leader in career games played, appearing in each of the Knights’ 76 matches over his five seasons.
The Knights kicked off their inaugural season in the Sun Belt in 2023 with an immediate statement victory, toppling the eventual 2023 National Champion and then-No. 9 Clemson Tigers on the road in their Aug. 24 season-opener by a 2-1 final score.
The winning effort, coupled with UCF’s 4-0-2 start overall, would help vault the Knights into the United Soccer Coaches national rankings from week one through the end of the season.
En route to earning the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth since the 2020-21 season, the Black and Gold also earned ranked draws with then-No. 4 West Virginia (2-2) and then-No. 11 FIU (2-2) before rattling off a season long six-game win streak Sept. 29–Oct. 27.
Rosa aided in keeping his program within national headlines even after the conclusion of the season, when he became the 13th in program history to be selected in the MLS SuperDraft with his second-round selection by the Colorado Rapids Dec. 19, 2023. He was also the sixth to be drafted in Souders' and Calabrese's UCF tenure, joining Gino Vivi (2023, LA Galaxy), Nick Taylor (2022, Orlando City), Yanis Leerman (2022, Chicago Fire), Cal Jennings (2020, FC Dallas) and Jonathan Dean (2020, Orlando City).
The early and immediate success for the Knights in the Sun Belt comes on the heels of a strong final six years as members of the American Athletic Conference from 2017-2022. UCF earned four AAC conference titles (three regular season, one tournament), while authoring two double-digit win seasons, four seasons with at least nine wins and five with at least eight wins.
The most successful era of UCF's run in The American came between the 2018 and 2019 seasons, when the Knights produced 13-3-3 and 15-3-2 records, respectively, en route to consecutive AAC regular-season championships and NCAA Tournament berths. With Souders' guidance, the Knights earned two Offensive Player of the Year awards (Jennings 2x), two Midfielder of the Year awards (Louis Perez, 2018; Yoni Sorokin, 2019), two Goalkeeper of the Year awards (Yannik Oettl 2x), one Freshman of the Year award (Gino Vivi, 2019), and two Coaching Staff of the Year awards (2018-19) in that span.