Vermont Soccer Player Maximilian Kissel Helps Team Win Its First NCAA Championship

/ Blavity-U, College Sports / By

The soccer team at the University of Vermont won its first NCAA championship title on Monday. The Catamounts won 2-1 against Marshall University in a game played in Cary, N.C. The victory was secured with the help of forward Maximilian Kissel, who scored a goal during overtime.

The men’s soccer team is the first squad in the school’s history to win a national title in a team sport. The skiing program won six national championships, the Associated Press reported. This season, the team scored 16 goals in the 83rd minute or later.

“Everything. It means every single thing. … No one believes in us. No one picked us to win,” Kissel told interviewer Andrew McDevitt after the game, according to the New York Times. “They always doubt us, but we always come out on top. That’s Vermont.”

The junior credited head coach Rob Dow for believing in his potential.

“He believed in me when I left my old school. A lot of schools didn’t believe in me, I gotta be honest with you,” Kissel said. “They didn’t think I could get to a championship. They didn’t think I could be a big contributor. He believed in me and I’m happy I could pay it back.”

Kissel was born in the United States but grew up in Wiesbaden, Germany, where he played high school soccer at Schultz Delitzsch Schule before moving back to the U.S. He joined the roster at Bridgeport University, a Div. II school, according to The Burlington Free Press. Kissel then transferred to the University of Vermont ahead of the 2024 season.

He chose the school because of its “great academics and the amazing men’s soccer team that is one of the best in the country,” according to UVM Athletics.

This season, he scored 11 goals, four of which were winning goals in the postseason.

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