Both the men’s and women’s soccer teams set as their goals a berth in the CAA Tournament. To get there both squads need to finish in the top six in the regular season.

Now the teams’ fates are in their own hands.

If the Seahawks win all their games this week, both side will reach the post season. Should they lose or tie a game, then the coaches, players and fans will have to watch and wait to see how the CAA’s other teams fare and where the squads land in the conference standings.

The men’s squad (10-5-2 overall, 4-3-1 conference) currently holds third place in the CAA, and travels to VCU Nov. 1 for its regular-season league finale. But the Seahawks hold a week off after the game while most of the conference plays two more games.

“Right now we’re in good shape. Touch wood. We should play to form, we should be in the playoff hunt,” men’s soccer coach Aidan Heaney said. “But there’s so many games to go.”

But a surprise victory over the league-leading Rams would settle everything.

If not, the Seahawks will just have to hunker down and wait a week.

“We have to wait until next week,” Heaney said. “We’re not going to get carried away and start looking at if such-and-such beats such-and-such, and any other variants.”

For the women’s squad, two home wins against Towson (Oct. 30) and Delaware (Nov. 1) seals the deal.

UNCW (8-7-2, 2-3-2) held an eighth place slot heading into the final games. But Delaware sits in second.

That winning feeling: One of the catalysts for the men’s soccer team’s improvement has been their performance in close games. UNCW holds a 6-4 record in matches decided by a goal and has tied teams twice.

Last season, the Seahawks only managed one 1-goal game in CAA play and the squad lost that match as the squad accrued a 2-7 record in league play. Five of the seven losses were by three goals or more.

Now the Seahawks are keeping things close and winning.

“There’s going to be the occasional blowout here or there, but all the games will be pretty tight. No team’s going to be a walkover, by any stretch of the imagination,” Heaney said. “The thing is this year, I came here two years ago and we were holding some teams close and we were just kind of just hanging in. … Our kids didn’t believe they could win because the kids here haven’t won before. And we bring a whole new set of guys. All the freshmen last year were from winning programs.

“They came here to do that; they had that before … they were used to winning things.”

Lace them up: The basketball squads hit the hardcourt Nov. 4 and Nov. 6 with exhibition games.

The men open on with a game against Division II Mount Olive College. The Trojans feature 6-foot-7 Division II preseason All-America Marcus West, who averaged 22.4 points and 10.4 rebounds per game last year.

The women play two nights later against Premier Players, which features former ACC and SEC players in its roster.

Both games tip off at 7 p.m.

Running Rebecca: Rebecca Vinsonhaler earned CAA Runner-of-the-Week honors on Oct. 21.

The freshman became the first Seahawk to win the award with her 23rd place finish in the North Carolina Cross Country Championships.

The Seahawks head to Towson, Md. for the Nov. 1 CAA Championships.

Honor roll: UNCW will be honored Nov. 7 by USA Today at the 3rd annual Academic Achievement Awards Presentation and Luncheon at the newspaper’s headquarters in McLean, Va.

The Seahawk athletic program is being recognized for holding the top student-athlete graduation rate among non-football playing Division I institutions. In all, 15 colleges and universities will get recognized, with each school getting $20,000 for scholarships, student support and exercising programs.