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After battling UMBC on the road to a draw through 90 minutes and two overtime periods, UConn had to stare down it's most hated and unbeatable opponent: a penalty shootout.
At long last, that demon has been vanquished. And UConn is one of the last 16 teams standing in the NCAA tournament because of it.
For the first time in the Ray Reid era, the men's soccer team walked away from penalty kicks with a victory, outlasting the 16th seeded UMBC Terriers 4-2 on penalties after playing to a 2-2 draw through regulation and overtime. Second half goals by Cyle Larin and Mamadou Diouf gave UConn the lead twice during a tense, back-and-forth half, but UMBC was able to get equalizers on both shortly thereafter.
UConn now advances to the Third Round and is likely headed to Los Angeles next weekend. The Huskies will play the winner of tonight's UCLA-Elon matchup. UCLA is the #1 seed in the NCAA tourney.
The win for the Men's Soccer team put the cherry on top of an incredibly successful weekend for UConn's athletic teams. Earlier in the day, the women's field hockey team won the National Championship over Duke. This coming after the football team got a much-needed first win over Temple Saturday, the women's basketball team took care of business as usual, and the men's team defeated BC and Indiana on their way to hoisting another tourney trophy in Madison Square Garden.