LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Bellarmine University men's soccer team has already made Bellarmine athletics history, but the Knights will be chasing a lot more when they meet reigning champion North Florida in the ASUN Championship finals at 7 p.m. (ET) Saturday at Hodges Stadium.

Bellarmine (8-3-5) is looking to become the first BU team in any sport in the Division-I era to earn an NCAA I Tournament berth, with the Knights doing so in the 28th and final year of Tim Chastonay, who is retiring from head coaching at the end of this season.

Bellarmine and North Florida (11-5-1) have been on a collision course after both attained the top divisional seeds in the ASUN Championship. The Knights captured the Gold Division championship — the BU athletics' program's first regular-season title in any sport in the D1 era — while the Ospreys wrangled the Graphite Division title.

The ASUN final will mark the first meeting between Bellarmine and North Florida in 2025 after the ASUN instituted intra-divisional-only play in the regular season. Overall, the Knights hold a 2-1-1 series lead over UNF; however, the Ospreys captured a 3-0 win in Hodges Stadium in the most recent matchup in 2024.

Bellarmine has advanced to the ASUN finals for the second time in three seasons after also playing in the title game in 2023 (1-0 loss at Lipscomb). The Knights are a divisional top seed for the second time as well, first achieving the feat as a representative of the North Division in the spring of 2021, the season that was delayed from fall 2020 due to the pandemic. That was BU's first year in D1.

Although Bellarmine is aiming to become the first-ever BU team in any sport to earn a D1 NCAA Tournament berth, the Knights are seeking the athletics' program's second conference tournament title. The BU men's basketball team captured the 2022 ASUN Tournament title but infamously was ineligible for the "Big Dance" because of the NCAA's controversial four-year reclassification rule.

Both Bellarmine and North Florida advanced to the championship game after winning penalty-kick shootouts in the semifinals. The Knights defeated Graphite Division 2-seed Jacksonville 4-2 at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium, while the Ospreys edged Graphite Division 3-seed Stetson 4-3 at Hodges Stadium.

Sophomore forward Johan Nissen-Lie, senior midfielder Collin Folds, sophomore forward Teddy Franke and senior defender Rhys Davies converted their PKs for Bellarmine. While redshirt senior Peter Van Euwen was in goal for the 110 minutes of game action, junior Tudor Iordan was summoned for the PK shootout and stopped two of the four attempts he faced after BU went first.

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