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Four Men's Soccer Teams Selected to 2010 NCAA Championship Field
PRINCETON, N.J. -- For the second year in a
row, four Ivy League men's soccer teams have been selected to the
NCAA Championship field. With a 7-0-0 season, Princeton clinched
the League's automatic bid and it is joined in the 48-team field by
at large selections Brown, Dartmouth and Penn. All four Ivy teams
will play first round games in Thursday, Nov. 18 and Princeton,
Brown and Penn will have the added benefit of hosting their first
round matchups. Princeton hosts UMBC, Brown welcomes Boston
College, Penn hosts Bucknell and Dartmouth hits the road to play at
Monmouth.
Each of the four Ivy League teams will try to string together four
NCAA tournament wins in order to advance to the 2010 NCAA Men's
College Cup, which will be played on Dec. 10 and 12 at Harder
Stadium in Santa Barbara, Calif. It is the first time four Ivy
League teams have appeared in the NCAA Championship field in
back-to-back years since the 1971 and 1972 seasons. Overall, 2010
marks the sixth time four or more Ivy teams have made the NCAA
Championship field (five teams made the 1977 tournament).
Additionally, the Ivy League is one of five leagues to send at
least four teams to the 2010 NCAA Championship field, joining the
BIG EAST (7), Atlantic Coast (5), Big Ten (5) and Conference USA
(4) in that exclusive territory.
Ivy League Team Capsules (listed in order of 2010 Ivy
League finish):
Princeton (13-3-1
overall; 7-0-0 Ivy League; First)
The Tigers won the 2010 Ivy League championship by posting the
first perfect 7-0-0 record in school history. With a school record
12-game winning streak in tact, Princeton will play host to UMBC at
7:00 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 18 at Roberts Stadium in
Princeton, N.J. It marks the second consecutive season the Tigers
have been named to the NCAA Championship field, and the ninth time
under head coach Jim Barlow. The winner of the
Princeton-UMBC game moves on to face 12th-seeded William & Mary
at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 21 in Williamsburg, Va.
Junior Antoine Hoppenot has paced the Tiger
attack with a eight goals and five asists for 21 points. Though he
missed three games, senior Josh Walburn is right
behind Hoppenot with six goals and seven assists for 19 points. The
13 wins by the Tigers are the most wins by the program since 1995
when current US National Team head coach Bob
Bradley guided Princeton to a 13-5 mark.
Penn (12-5-0 overall;
5-2-0 Ivy League; Second)
Penn will play host to Patriot League champion Bucknell at 7:00
p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 18 at Rhodes Field in Philadelphia, Pa. It
is the first ever men's soccer meeting between the two schools. The
winner of the Penn-Bucknell match will move on to play at
second-seeded Maryland at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 21 in College
Park, Md.
The Quakers opened the season with a four-game winning streak and
also strung together a six-game winning streak in the middle
portion of the year, which included a run of five consecutive
shutouts on their way to their first NCAA Championship appearance
since 2008. This is the first time since 1977 that the Quakers have
qualified for the NCAA Championship with an at-large berth and the
third time head coach Rudy Fuller has guided the
Quakers to an NCAA appearance.
Penn boasts a strong defense that allowed just 12 goals against
all season. In net, senior goalkeeper Ben Berg
played every minute for the Quakers, recording a 0.69 goals against
average, 65 saves and a 0.844 save percentage - the 12th best mark
in Div. I. Freshman Stephen Baker and junior
Christian Barreiro have spearheaded the Penn
offense with 18 and 15 points respectively. Baker leads the team
with eight goals, while Barreiro leads the Quakers with seven
assists.
Dartmouth (10-6-1
overall; 4-3-0 Ivy League; Third)
Dartmouth will travel to West Long Branch, N.J. to play NEC
Champion Monmouth University at noon on Thursday, Nov. 18. The
winner of the Dartmouth-Monmouth contest, which will mark the first
meeting between the two schools, will head west to face
ninth-seeded Notre Dame on Sunday, Nov. 21 in Notre Dame, Ind. at
6:00 p.m.
After starting the season with a 6-3-1 mark the Big Green may have
moved off some radars by the middle of the season when they dropped
three in a row to move to 6-6-1. But Dartmouth, which played a
tough schedule that included five ranked opponents, rallied to win
its last four games en route to the program's fourth consecutive
NCAA Championship appearance. This marks Dartmouth's sixth NCAA
appearance in the last seven years, with three straight at-large
bids. It is the sixth appearance for Dartmouth under head coach
Jeff Cook.
Dartmouth closed the regular season on a four match win streak by
topping 18th-ranked Brown in its season finale, 1-0, at home.
Similar to the Brown Bears, the Big Green shared goal-scoring
duties throughout the team as 12 different players scored at least
one goal this season. What's more, nine different players scored
Dartmouth's ten game-winning goals, with senior Andrew
Olsen chipping in with two game winners. Olsen's classmate
Lucky Mksana leads the team with 11 points on four
goals and three assists.
Brown (11-3-3 overall;
3-3-1 Ivy League; Fourth)
The Bears will play host to Boston College at 7:00 p.m. on
Thursday, Nov. 18 at Stevenson Field in Providence, R.I. The winner
of the Brown-Boston College tilt moves on to play at 11th-seeded
Connecticut at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 21 in Storrs, Conn.
Led by first-year Head Coach Patrick Laughlin,
the Bears opened the season without a loss in their first nine
games (7-0-2) and followed that momentum to a second consecutive
NCAA tourament berth. The Bears have have now made the NCAA
Championship field in five of the past six seasons (including
back-to-back appearnaces in 2009 and 2010) and 25 times
overall.
The staples of the 2010 Brown Bears is strong defense and timely
scoring. For the season, senior goalkeeper Paul
Grandstrand and his defensive counterparts have only
allowed eight goals against, giving Grandstrand a paltry 0.45 goals
against average (the third lowest mark in Div. I) to go along with
54 saves. Grandtrand set the Brown single-season shutout record
with 11. Junior Sean Rosa has lead the Brown
offense with 16 points on six goals and four assists. All told, 11
different Bears have notched at least one goal in 2010.
