DENVER – The [RV/-] University of Denver men's soccer program heads to [8 seed] Portland on Sunday, November 23, at 6 p.m. PT/7 p.m. MT in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Men's Soccer Championship at Merlo Field. The match will be streamed live on ESPN+.
 
DENVER VS. PORTLAND HISTORY:
Denver leads Portland 5-3-4 as NCAA Division I opponents, though the Pilots claimed the win in the teams' most recent meeting earlier this regular season, holding off a late surge from DU to finish with a 3-2 win at home on September 19. This will be the first time Denver and Portland will meet in the postseason. FULL HISTORY
 
LAST TIME OUT:
After entering halftime in a scoreless draw, Denver scored twice in just over three minutes to advance out of the NCAA First Round with a 2-0 win over UC Irvine on Thursday, November 20, at University of Denver Soccer Stadium. Kyle McGowan opened the scoring with his 10^th goal and third game winner of the season in the 71^st minute. Luke Schultz doubled Denver's lead just 3:17 later, and Isaac Nehme secured DU's sixth clean sheet of the campaign with a kick save in the 85^th minute. FULL RECAP
 
DENVER'S NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Denver is now 11-11-2 (0-2 pens) in the NCAA tournament in the program's Division I history, including 9-2-0 at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium. Denver is 1-5-0 in the second round in its NCAA Tournament history, including 0-3-0 on the road. The Pioneers' last true road match in the NCAA tournament was also in the second round in 2023 when Denver fell, 1-2, at No. 6 seed SMU.
 
WEST COAST CONFERENCE PREVIEW

• Sunday's match will pit Denver against future West Coast Conference foe Portland.
• On October 31, the University of Denver announced it has accepted an invitation to join the West Coast Conference in nine sports, beginning in the 2026-27 season.
• Denver will join the West Coast Conference in men's and women's basketball, men's and women's golf, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's tennis and women's volleyball.
• The move provides Denver with a significant enhancement to the overall reputation of the university and brand association, allying DU with highly regarded, mostly private institutions with stronger academic ranking and profiles that will further strengthen the university's position in the western United States.

 
RECORD BOOK WATCH

• Career Shutouts: Isaac Nehme broke the career shutouts record in the Pios 2024 NCAA Second Round win with his 27th and now has 35. He is now the all-time leader in the Summit League for career shutouts.
• Career Goalkeeper Wins: Isaac Nehme broke the career goalkeeper wins record on August 31 vs. SIUE (2-1), capturing his 43rd victory to pass Nick Gardner (2014-18). Nehme now has 52.
• Career Saves: Isaac Nehme has 185 career saves to sit fourth in Denver's DI history in career saves. Nehme is five saves behind Parker Jarvis (1999-01) for third on the list.
• Career Matches Started: Isaac Nehme and Trevor Wright enter Sunday having made 84 career starts, breaking the program record with their starts against UC Irvine in the 2025 NCAA First Round. They top the previous record of 83 starts by Scott DeVoss (2015-18).
• Career Matches Played: With his next appearance, Dylan Akau will tie Aidan O'Toole's (2019-23) career appearances record (87). On October 19, Akau became just the eighth Pioneer in program history to reach 80 career appearances. Wright and Nehme, who became the ninth and 10th players to crack 80 matches played, will make their 85th appearance on Sunday, sitting together in third in program history.

 
DENVER AGAINST RANKED OPPONENTS

• Denver is 28-47-16 in its Division I history against the USC Top-25, going 14-13-3 at home, 13-28-10 on the road and 1-6-4 neutral.
• Under Jamie Franks, Denver is 19-21-9 against ranked opponents, including 10-5-2 at home, 9-14-5 on the road and 0-2-2 at a neutral site.
• The Pioneers are 12-8-4 against teams receiving votes, including 7-5-2 at home, 4-3-2 on the road and 1-0-0 at a neutral site.
• Denver is 4-13-0 against teams ranked in the top-5 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll, including 2-8 in true road games.
• The Pioneers only road win against a top-5 team prior to last season's 1-0 win at No. 5 Stanford came on December 2, 2016 when the fourth-ranked Pioneers beat No. 3 Clemson 1-0 in the NCAA Quarterfinals.
• Denver's last win against a top-5 team prior to last season came in a 3-2 win against No. 3 Washington on August 30, 2018 at DU.
• Denver's first win over a ranked opponent in 2025 came at No. 14 Georgetown on October 7 (GT 1-2 DEN). 

THE FRANKS FOUNDATION

• Jack and Sheila Weinberg Head Men's Soccer Coach Jamie Franks is in his 11th season as the bench boss and his 14th with the program overall in 2025.
• Franks and his staff were named the 2016 National Coaching Staff of the Year after taking Denver to its first College Cup appearance.
• Franks is 136-46-35 in his time as a head coach, 171-63-43 in his time at Denver overall and 270-90-60 in his time as a player and a coach in college soccer.
• Franks is 10-8-2 in the NCAA Tournament at DU (10-7-1 as HC). As a player and coach, Franks is 26-12-4 in the NCAAs.
• In addition to National Coaching Staff of the Year, Franks is a five-time Summit League Coach of the Year (2015-18, 2023).
• Franks was the youngest head coach in Division I soccer when he was hired in 2015, and the second youngest in 2016 when he took the program to the College Cup.
• Franks led the Pioneers to back-to-back unbeaten regular seasons in his first two years in charge, the first program to go unbeaten in back-to-back regular seasons since Clemson in 1977-78.
• In his 11 seasons, Denver has qualified for the NCAA Tournament 10 times and received a bye into the second round four times. Denver has played in the second round seven times.
• Franks won the national championship as a player with Wake Forest in 2007 in Cary, defeating Ohio State 2-1 in the final.
• Franks made his sixth College Cup appearance combined as a player and coach last season.

 
TOP-10 SINCE 2015

• Denver is 135-46-35 since the start of the 2015 season.
• That record is good for sixth in the country in wins during that span, behind Wake Forest (159), Indiana (153), Clemson (149), Georgetown (145), Stanford (139).
• Of the 27 teams that had at least 100 wins in that span entering the year, Denver has the seventh-fewest losses at 46.
• Six of Denver's opponents are among the 27 that began the year with 100 wins since the start of the 2015 season.

 
KELLY NAMED TOP DRAWER SOCCER NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK

• Sophomore Keegan Kelly bagged a natural hat trick in Denver's 4-1 Summit League Semifinal win over Oral Roberts on November 9.
• Combine that performance with his equalizer on November 5 in the regular season finale, Kelly was named the Top Drawer Soccer National Player of the Week on November 11.
• Kelly's hat trick was Denver's 15th in its Division I history.
• Prior to Kelly's hat trick, Oje Ofunrein's hat trick vs. Kansas City in the 2023 Summit League Semifinal was both the last DU hat trick and the league's last hat trick in the tournament.
• The hat trick was the fifth-fastest between goals one and three in the Pioneers record book (21:18).
• Kelly's final two goals marked the first time Denver has scored two goals in the final five minutes of a match in the program's DI era.
• Kelly's final two goals were the 10th-fastest goals scored by the same player in Denver's DI history (2:17).
• Kelly scored the opener in the 4-2 win over Kansas City on November 15 in the Summit League Final.
• In seven career postseason games, Kelly has six goals and two assists, and has at least one goal contribution in six of those seven games.

 
SPREADING THE SCORING

• When Dylan Akau scored Denver's 10th goal of the season in the first half of its September 14 match vs. Mercer, the Pioneers had 10 different players score its first 10 goals of the campaign.
• Grant Lund became Denver's 11th unique goal scorer in the fourth minute on November 1 vs. Oral Roberts.
• Keegan Kelly's late equalizer at St. Thomas made him the 12th different goal scorer for Denver this season.
• McGowan scored in three-straight matches from September 8-19, Denver's first player to score in three matches since teammate Holger Olsson did it in November, 2022.
• Denver has eight multi-goal scorers this year, led by McGowan's 10.
• Denver had 14 different goal scorers all of last season.

 
DENVER'S 2025 SUMMIT LEAGUE POSTSEASON AWARDS
Offensive Player of the Year: Kyle McGowan
Defensive Player of the Year: Trevor Wright
Goalkeeper of the Year: Isaac Nehme (3rd-straight)
First Team: Bryce Willougyby, McGowan, Wright, Nehme
Second Team: Luke Schultz
Third Team: Dylan Akau, Grant Lund, Aidan Semelsberger, Jake Smith
All-Newcomer Team: Lund, Erik Collins