Men's conference tournament updates

by Travis Clark

November 7, 2012

The ACC tournament is now officially under way.

Quarterfinal action across the east was frenetic in one of the nation’s premier conference tournaments, as four teams booked spots to the semifinals for this weekend in Germantown, Maryland.

For the most part, favorites managed to hold serve, with three of the four higher seeds advancing. Top seed Maryland held on in the face of a valiant effort against Virginia Tech, advancing thanks to a close 2-1 win in College Park. Patrick Mullins scored the game-winning goal, heading home a corner kick in the second half.

"It was a good result. I think Virginia Tech was very committed to defending and started out with a lot of bodies behind the ball, took a lot of space away and absorbed a lot of pressure from us," head coach Sasho Cirovski said. "Our response was great. We should have had a lot more goals. Hats off to Virginia Tech and hats off to their goalkeeper Kyle Renfro. He had a career night tonight.

"The first game in a tournament is always the toughest to get through and obviously we did a lot of good things today and on to Friday."

The Terps advance to face Clemson, which beat Boston College 3-1 on penalty kicks after the two sides drew 0-0.

In the other half of the ACC bracket, Virginia provided the closest thing to an upset of the night, advancing to the semifinals thanks to a 5-3 win over Wake Forest on penalty kicks after a 2-2 draw over 110 minutes.

North Carolina rounds out the field of four after beating rivals Duke 1-0.

Big South Conference Tournament

Coastal Carolina had no problem defeating Presbyterian, winning 5-0.

High Point drew 4-4 with Campbell, High Point advanced on penalty kicks 5-3.

Radford defeated Gardner-Webb 2-0.

Winthrop defeated Liberty 2-1.

Horizon League Tournament

Valparaiso won 1-0 over Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Loyola-Chicago defeated UIC 4-3.