2021 Big West Conference men's soccer tournament

The 2021 Big West Conference men's soccer tournament was the postseason men's soccer tournament for the Big West Conference held on November 3 through 12, 2021. All rounds of the tournament were hosted at the higher seeds home stadium. The six-team single-elimination tournament consisted of three rounds based on seeding from regular season conference play. The defending champions were the UC Davis Aggies.^[2] The Aggies won the tournament in 2019 and are classified as the defending champions because there was no tournament held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[3] UC Davis was unable to defend its crown, falling to UC Santa Barbara in the Semifinals. UC Santa Barbara would go on to win the title, defeating UC Irvine 4–0 in the final.^[4] This was the second Big West tournament title for the UC Santa Barbara program, both of which have come under head coach Tim Vom Steeg.^[5] As tournament champions, UC Santa Barbara earned the Big West's automatic berth into the 2021 NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament.

2021 Big West Conference men's soccer tournament
Classification	Division I
Teams	6
Matches	5
Site	Campus Sites (Higher Seed)
Champions	UC Santa Barbara (2nd title)
Winning coach	Tim Vom Steeg (2nd title)
MVP	Finn Ballard McBride^[1] (UC Santa Barbara)
Broadcast	ESPN+
Big West Conference men's soccer tournament «2019 2022»

2021 Big West Conference men's soccer standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
UC Santa Barbara ‡	6	–	1	–	2			12	–	5	–	4
UC Irvine	6	–	1	–	2			8	–	8	–	4
Cal Poly	5	–	1	–	3			7	–	6	–	4
Cal State Bakersfield	5	–	4	–	0			6	–	10	–	1
UC Davis	4	–	4	–	1			9	–	10	–	1
UC Riverside	3	–	4	–	2			9	–	7	–	3
Sacramento State	3	–	4	–	2			5	–	10	–	3
Cal State Northridge	3	–	5	–	1			4	–	13	–	1
UC San Diego ^#	2	–	7	–	0			5	–	11	–	0
Cal State Fullerton	1	–	7	–	1			3	–	11	–	3
‡ – 2021 Big West Tournament champion + – At-large invitation to the 2021 NCAA tournament ^# – Ineligible for post-season (In transition) As of December 14, 2021 Rankings from United Soccer Coaches Source: Big West

Seeding

The top six teams in the regular season earned a spot in the tournament. Teams were seeded based on regular season conference record and tiebreakers were used to determine seedings of teams that finished with the same record. The first and second seeds earned a bye into the Semifinals, and hosted their Semifinal game. A tiebreaker was required to determine the first and second seeds after UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine finished the regular season with identical 6–1–2 records. Their regular season match ended in a tie and the teams had identical goal differential, and therefore goals scored in conference play was used as the tiebreaker. UC Santa Barbara won the tiebreaker and was awarded the first seed and UC Irvine was the second seed. UC Riverside and Sacramento State tied for sixth in the regular season standings with identical 3–4–2 records. UC Riverside earned the sixth and final seed by beating Sacramento State 2–0 in the team's regular season matchup.^[6]

Seed	School	Conference Record	Points
1	UC Santa Barbara	6–1–2	20
2	UC Irvine	6–1–2	20
3	Cal Poly	5–1–3	18
4	Cal State Bakersfield	5–4–0	15
5	UC Davis	4–4–1	13
6	UC Riverside	3–4–2	11

Bracket

Source:^[7]

	First round Wednesday, Nov. 3					Semifinals Saturday, Nov. 6					Final Saturday, Nov. 12
						1	UC Santa Barbara (a.e.t.)	1
	4	Cal State Bakersfield	1			5	UC Davis	0
	5	UC Davis	3								1	UC Santa Barbara	4
											2	UC Irvine	0
						2	UC Irvine (pen.)	2 (4)
	3	Cal Poly	0			6	UC Riverside	2 (2)
	6	UC Riverside	1

Schedule

First Round

#4 Cal State Bakersfield v #5 UC Davis

November 3, 2021	#4 Cal State Bakersfield	1–3	#5 UC Davis	Bakersfield, CA
6:00 p.m. PT	Tom Shepherd   19' Niall Owens   20' Peter McKiernan   87'	Report	33', 64' Robert Mejia   37' Maximilian Arfsten   61' Jake Haupt   78' Team	Stadium: Main Soccer Field Attendance: 785 Referee: Rene Nunez Assistant referees: Ivan De Christofaro Assistant referees: Kevin Zelaya Fourth official: Richard Heron

#3 Cal Poly v #6 UC Riverside

November 3, 2021	#3 Cal Poly	0–1	#6 UC Riverside	San Luis Obispo, CA
7:00 p.m. PT	Carlos Arce-Hurtado   54' Jacob Glass   83'	Report	54' Leopoldo Hernandez   54' Carlos Osorio-Castro	Stadium: Alex G. Spanos Stadium Attendance: 612 Referee: Ian Anderson Assistant referees: Gustavo Barrinetos Assistant referees: John Pranjic Fourth official: Adam Zarrin

Semifinals

#1 UC Santa Barbara v #5 UC Davis

November 6, 2021	#1 UC Santa Barbara	1–0 (a.e.t.)	#5 UC Davis	Santa Barbara, CA
7:00 p.m. PT	Nemo Philipp   107'	Report	51' Emmanuel Doherty	Stadium: Harder Stadium Attendance: 1,267 Referee: Bernhard Hosu Assistant referees: Ivan De Cristofaro Assistant referees: Salma Perez Fourth official: Luis Gutierrez

#2 UC Irvine v #6 UC Riverside

November 6, 2021	#2 UC Irvine	2–2 (a.e.t.) (4–2 p)	#6 UC Riverside	Irvine, CA
7:00 p.m. PT	UC Riverside Own Goal   67' (o.g.) Mario Anaya   71' Francesco Montanile   77'	Report	21' Federico Ucar   40' Freymar Omarsson   72' Jonick Pineda   86',   87' Roberto Garcia-Vargas   106' Adolfo Magana	Stadium: Anteater Stadium Attendance: 566 Referee: Sean Wright Assistant referees: Trevor Rappleye Assistant referees: Jorge Partida Fourth official: Yoel Miller
	Penalties
	Lawrence Yamaguchi   Jake Means   Beto Alvarenga   Victor Sandsmark-Evensen		Leopoldo Hernandez   Brendan Clark   Oscar Penate   Josue Varela

Final

#1 UC Santa Barbara v #2 UC Irvine

November 12, 2021	#1 UC Santa Barbara	4–0	#2 UC Irvine	Santa Barbara, CA
7:00 p.m. PT	Ramses Martinez   15' Salvador Aguilar   44' Henry Davies   54' Finn Ballard McBride   66'	Report	21'   45' Oscar Cervantes   44' Gordon Botterill   45' Team   54' Beto Alvarenga	Stadium: Harder Stadium Attendance: 2,209 Referee: Ronald Hoffman Assistant referees: Trevor Wiseman Assistant referees: Trevor Rappleye Fourth official: Magic Berenji

Statistics

Goalscorers

There were 14 goals scored in 5 matches, for an average of 2.8 goals per match (as of November 12, 2021).

2 goals

• Robert Mejia – UC Davis

1 goal

• Tom Shepherd – Cal State Bakersfield
• Maximilian Arfsten – UC Davis
• Francesco Montanile – UC Irvine
• Roberto Garcia-Vargas – UC Riverside
• Leopoldo Hernandez – UC Riverside
• Jonick Pineda – UC Riverside
• Salvador Aguilar – UC Santa Barbara
• Henry Davies – UC Santa Barbara
• Ramses Martinez – UC Santa Barbara
• Finn Ballard McBride – UC Santa Barbara
• Nemo Philipp – UC Santa Barbara

1 own goal

• UC Riverside (against UC Irvine)

References

1. Big West Conference (November 13, 2021). "Top-Seeded UC Santa Barbara Wins The Big West 2021 Men's Soccer Championship". bigwest.org. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
2. "UC Davis Wins First Men's Soccer Tourney Title". bigwest.org. November 15, 2019. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
3. "Big West Cancels Fall Sports". bigwest.org. Big West Conference. December 10, 2020. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
4. Big West Conference. "2021 BIG WEST MEN'S SOCCER TOURNAMENT". bigwest.org. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
5. "Big West Men's Soccer Records" (PDF). bigwest.org. Big West Conference. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
6. "Tournament Field Set For The Big West 2021 Men's Soccer Championship". bigwest.org. Big West Conference. October 31, 2021. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
7. "The Big West 2021 Men's Soccer Championship". Big West Conference. Retrieved February 7, 2022.