SMU Soccer Advances To C-USA Championship

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TULSA, Okla. (SMU) – The SMU men’s soccer team shut out No. 1 seed South Carolina, 1-0, in the semifinals of the Conference USA Championship Friday night at Hurricane Stadium. The Mustangs will play in the C-USA Championship match on Sunday at 1 p.m. on CBS Sports Network. With the win, SMU is now 12-6-1.

Junior Ben Hill scored the game’s lone goal in the 27th minute. Following an SMU corner kick, T.J. Nelson collected the ball as it was cleared out of the box and fired a shot from about 22 yards out. Hill redirected the ball in front of the net, sending it just inside the right post for a 1-0 Mustang lead. The tally was Hill’s second of the season.

Goalkeeper Jaime Ibarra had a stellar performance in net to earn his fourth shutout of the season. He had several big moments, making a point-blank save on a bullet by South Carolina’s leading scorer Bradlee Baladez in the 55th minute and stopping a corner kick on the line with three seconds remaining in the game.

Senior defender Diogo de Almeida also had a nice play on Baladez as de Almeida made a sliding save in the 19th minute to prevent a Gamecock goal.

SMU will face the winner of the No. 17 UAB/UCF semifinal in the Conference USA Championship on Sunday at 1 p.m. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.

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