Vermont soccer’s seed, schedule for the 2025 NCAA Tournament

Vermont soccer will have homefield advantage as it chases a second straight national championship.

After starting the 2025 campaign as the country’s preseason No. 1, the defending national champion Catamounts are the top overall seed for the NCAA Tournament following the bracket announcement on Monday, Nov. 17.

The Catamounts (14-0-5), owners of a nation-leading 29-game unbeaten streak, will host a second-round game at Virtue Field at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 23. They will take on the first-round winner between Hofstra and Syracuse.

Vermont clinched its position with a 2-0 victory over Bryant in the America East championship game on Sunday, Nov. 16. Vermont is also the country’s last unbeaten squad in 2025.

“It’s amazing accomplishment to start the season at No. 1 and then get into the NCAA Tournament at (No. 1) as well,” Vermont coach Rob Dow said. ‘It’s a huge testament to the consistency and our performances and how the team has grown.”

Vermont junior Andrew Millar: “We still see yourselves as trying to cement our legacy within the nation.”

Vermont defeated Hofstra at home on Sept. 16 in a rematch of last year’s NCAA Tournament second-round tilt. The 2-1 result gave Dow his 100th career victory at Vermont. The Catamounts last played Syracuse in the 2022 NCAA Tournament quarterfinals, where it lost a heartbreaker 2-1.

The Hofstra-‘Cuse winner will face a Vermont team that has sold out 13 straight games at Virtue Field.

“We feel every minute of support on the field. That’s the biggest of the tournament, is to be able to be home all the way up until North Carolina,” Miller said. “We have so much love for all of the supporters sitting out in the cold for 90-plus minutes. It’s massive and this community is amazing.”

Home field is undeniably an advantage; last year Vermont won its first NCAA title despite being an unseeded team that logged nearly 9,000 miles of travel. As long as it advances each round, Vermont will play every NCAA Tournament game at home until the College Cup, which begins with the semifinals at Cary, North Carolina on Friday, Dec. 12.

“It’s one game at a time. The mileage is great on this one, I live right off East Ave. We are not going to have that story to tell, but there’s going to be many more stories …,” Dow said.

Added Dow of Virtue Field: “It is our fortress, our battleground. We are so excited that people have to roll up to our castle and try and take us down.”

Vermont heads to its 15th NCAA Tournament, fifth in a row and seventh since 2015.