A sudden, lowly moment often offers promising teams one final pivot before completely locking in for a dominant run.

Massachusetts men’s soccer head coach Fran O’Leary gives full credit to his players for following through on theirs.

It was nearly two months ago that the Minutemen (13-3-5) – with one of the country’s top defenses – allowed four goals to Davidson in an eye-opening 4-2 loss. Through 12 games up to that point, only once had anyone scored more than two goals against UMass in its best start (6-2-4) since 2017.

O’Leary called it a momentary drop of their standards. A prideful group didn’t take that lightly. And with just three goals allowed over their last eight games combined, in which the Minutemen have gone 7-0-1 and posted consecutive shutouts against highly-ranked teams in the NCAA Tournament, they’ve matured from their lowest point to reach the program’s first Elite Eight in 17 years.

Unseeded UMass takes on third-seeded Denver on Saturday at 3 p.m. for a spot in the College Cup Final Four, which it last reached in that 2007 season.

“After the Davidson game, we kind of took self-reflection,” said senior goalkeeper Alex Geczy. “We just locked in together – worked as a team and I think just really bought into what we could achieve.”

“I think all the credit goes to the players,” O’Leary added. “They’re growing up. They’re all still young people, but the maturation from the Davidson game to now has been exceptional.”

The underdog path is an extremely difficult one in the NCAA Tournament, evident by the mere two teams still alive that weren’t seeded. But leading scorer and graduate student Alec Hughes – who ranks third in the country with 16 goals and just set the all-time program record in goals scored – says the team has always believed in itself no matter the opponent.

Hughes and the Minutemen can light up the scoreboard as well as anyone, which helps fuel that confidence. But a big reason for it is UMass’ defense with Geczy as its backbone. The first-year starter tied a program-record 10 shutouts this year to help the Minutemen rank top-10 nationally in shutout percentage.

“If we score goals, with the way our defense has played this season, we don’t concede too many goals,” Hughes said. “So, I think if we score one goal, we’re probably going to win the game. Two goals, I’d say we’ll most definitely win the game. If we can get goals, there’s not many games I think we’re losing.”

The credit for that defense extends well beyond Geczy, and it’s delivered on the biggest stages thus far.

After a 2-1 win over Evansville in the first round, defenders Matt Fordham (senior), Aidan Kelly (junior) and Alex Brown (junior), as well as substitutes Joey Bianco (junior) and Brad Moccio (senior), paired with Geczy (seven saves) to shut out No. 6 Pennsylvania 1-0 on the road. Then, in a 1-0 shutout over No. 11 Virginia in the third round, it was the press up top that limited the opposing attack.

High-intensity play is a team-wide commitment, and Hughes says everyone wears those shutouts as a badge of honor.

“I think it starts at the front,” O’Leary said. “We’ve got guys who will press and work. We usually say our front six presses and our back four sweeps up.”

“I think both clean sheets have been a whole team effort, from our two strikers all the way to our back line,” Geczy added. “I know clean sheets are technically a goalkeeper statistic, but for us, we look at it as a whole team statistic. Having recent success against top-ranked teams kind of shows how important defending is for us.”

Defense has starred, and Hughes – the Atlantic 10 Conference’s first offensive player of the year in three consecutive seasons – is complemented by Andrew Ortiz (five goals) and a trio of players with at least three goals this year to pose a dangerous scoring threat.

Denver, which has only lost twice at home in the last three years, is its biggest test yet. And the Minutemen are ready for it.

“We’ve got to start fast,” O’Leary said. “We have the ability to score goals, we can stop goals, but we’re playing one of the elite teams in Denver. … If we’re going to advance to the Final Four, we have to do something that’s been extremely rare.”

“All the guys, we’re hungry for it,” Geczy added. “I think we’re hungrier than most teams in this situation.”