WATERBURY, Conn. -- With their fate up in the air until Monday night, Post University Men's Soccer could finally breathe easy as the Eagles are headed to the NCAA Tournament for the seventh consecutive season. Earning an at-large bid as the eighth seed in the Super Region 1, Post heads to host site Southern New Hampshire University for the First Round to take on ninth-seeded University of Bridgeport in a rematch of this past weekend's CACC Championship Match at LaMoy Field.

No stranger to the Purple Knights, Post tied them on the road earlier in the season, 2-2, after leading 2-0, before playing them again on Saturday for the conference championship, which the Eagles have been to in seven consecutive seasons. Bridgeport would overcome a 3-1 second-half deficit and being down the CACC Defensive Player of the Year, Bruno Cakurs, due to a red card in the second half, to stun Post, 4-3, earning themselves their first CACC Championship since joining the conference in 2022.

Now with a clean slate, the two teams will head to Southern New Hampshire University to do battle a third time on Friday at 3:00 PM, with the winner advancing to face top-seeded Southern New Hampshire University on Sunday at 3:00 PM, which has a bye in the first round. University of Charleston (W.V.) and Adelphi University represent the fourth and fifth seeds, respectively, on the Post side of the bracket, playing on Sunday for a right to face whoever comes out of the three-team affair in Manchester, New Hampshire.

On the lower half of the Super Region I bracket, two-seeded Franklin Pierce University, which is the host, will await the winner of seventh-seeded Wilmington University, which earned an at-large from the CACC, and tenth-seeded Roberts Wesleyan University, which was the East Coast Conference champion over Queens (N.Y.) in penalty kicks. Capturing the last two spots in the region were three-seeded Bentley University and sixth-seeded Gannon University, playing each other on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 PM.

Moving back to the third installment of Post-Bridgeport, the Eagles are 4-6-3 in the all-time series against the Purple Knights, but Saturday's loss was their first since 2010, when they fell 2-1 on the road to Bridgeport. This time around, the matchup will look a little different as red cards issued to both Head Coach Ted Haley and Assistant Coach Luis Figueiredo will leave them off the sideline for Friday's match, leaving Assistant Coach Ryan Dunnigan and Goalkeeper Coach Scott Vanderwall as the other remaining two coaches available on the sideline. 

If the Eagles advance to face Southern New Hampshire on Sunday, both Haley and Figueiredo will be eligible to return. However, Post does get the CACC Goalkeeper of the Year in junior goalkeeper Leopold Dufaut back from his one-match suspension due to a red card in the CACC Semifinals against Holy Family University, which kept him out of the CACC Championship Match, giving senior goalkeeper Chris Jones his first start since transferring to Post.

Bridgeport was also dealt a blow to their team on Saturday as Cakurs was issued a red card as well, rendering him suspended for one match, meaning he will also miss the First-Round matchup and be eligible to return if the Purple Knights advance to the next round.

For more information on the Super Region I portion of the NCAA Tournament that Post University will play in, head to snhupenmen.com for the latest information.