#1 Men's Soccer Earns 8th Consecutive Trip to NCAA Tournament; Top-Seed in Super Region 1; and Home-Field Advantage Throughout Regional

#1 Men's Soccer Earns 8th Consecutive Trip to NCAA Tournament; Top-Seed in Super Region 1; and Home-Field Advantage Throughout Regional

Ravens have first-round bye and will play on Saturday

2010 NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Tournament Bracket

RINDGE, N.H. (November 8, 2010) -- The No. 1-nationally ranked Franklin Pierce University men's soccer team on Monday night earned the top-seed in Super Region 1 of the 2010 NCAA Division II Tournament. By earning the top seed, the Ravens received a first-round bye and will have home-field advantage throughout the regional.

Franklin Pierce (17-1-1) will face the winner of Thursday's first-round match between fourth-seeded Southern New Hampshire (11-3-4) and fifth-seeded Bloomfield (15-4-1). That match will be held at 4 p.m. on Sodexo Field in Rindge. The second round match between the Ravens and either SNHU or Dominican, will be held on Saturday night at 7 p.m. in Rindge.

Tickets will be sold at the gate and are $7 for adults, $4 for students and seniors, $2 for children (2-12 years) and free for children under two years who are accompanied by a paying adult. Franklin Pierce students who show their college ID at the gate on Saturday night will have the cost of their ticket paid for, courtesy of the Athletics Department and Student Involvement.

Joining Franklin Pierce as the other host-school in Super Region 1 is second-seeded Dowling (11-1-5). The Golden Lions will face the winner of Friday’s opening round match between third-seeded Southern Connecticut State (13-2-3) and sixth-seeded Dominican (N.Y.) (12-3-5). The Dowling sub-regional will be held in Oakdale, N.Y., and the second-round match featuring the host-school will be held on Sunday.

The teams that advance from the two Super Region 1 sub-regionals will battle for the regional championship on either Saturday, Nov. 20 or Sunday, Nov. 21 at the site of the highest seed remaining. The winner of Super Region 1 will advance to the national semifinals, which will be held in Louisville, Ky. on Dec. 2. The national championship match will be held on Dec. 4.

Franklin Pierce will be making its eighth-consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament and the 16th overall in program history. The Ravens captured their first national championship in 2007, posting a 1-0 victory over Lincoln Memorial University in the final in Orange Beach, Ala. Franklin Pierce has won three of the last six regional championships and been to the national title game in two of the last five seasons.

Franklin Pierce will enter the national tournament coming off an impressive run through the Northeast-10 Conference Playoffs, which saw the Ravens win the league championship on Sunday with a 1-0 victory over Bentley in Sodexo Field. The Ravens were the top-seed in the league playoffs after winning the regular season championship. Franklin Pierce is unbeaten in its last 16 matches, going 15-0-1 during that stretch. The Ravens are also 11-0-1 this season in the friendly-confines of Sodexo Field.

The Ravens are led by junior back Tom Reilly (Wallasey, England), who last week was named the 2010 Northeast-10 Conference Player of the Year. He provided a huge defensive lift for the Ravens during the conference playoffs as he was named to the All-Tournament Team.

Seven other Ravens earned all-conference honors following the regular season, including: junior midfielder Paul Latif (Newcastle, England) on the first-team; senior back Shaliek Dawkins (Kingston, Jamaica) on the first-team; junior midfielder Diego Tabares (Seekonk, Mass.) on the first-team; junior forward Victor Goncalves (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) on the second-team; junior goalkeeper Vinny Papageorgiou (Wilmington, Mass.) on the second-team; sophomore midfielder Samuel Kelley (Bedford, N.H.) on the third-team; and graduate back Jeff Hay (Dudley, Mass.) on the third-team.

Two Franklin Pierce players who did not receive all-conference honors, but came up huge during the playoff run were graduate forward Shaun Taylor (Isle of White, England) and sophomore midfielder Amory Houghton (Cape Elizabeth, Maine). Taylor was named the NE-10 Championship's Most Outstanding Player after scoring the game-winning goal in Sunday's title tilt. Houghton registered at least one point in each of Franklin Pierce's three playoff matches, including scoring the game-winner versus Le Moyne in the semifinals last Friday.

For more information on Franklin Pierce men's soccer, please visit the team's page at athletics.franklinpierce.edu(.) To follow the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceAthletics).

2010 NCAA DIVISION II MEN'S SOCCER TOURNAMENT SUPER REGION 1
First Round
#4 Southern New Hampshire vs. #5 Bloomfield, Thursday, Nov. 11, 4 p.m. (Sodexo Field, Rindge, N.H.)
#3 Southern Connecticut State vs. #6 Dominican (N.Y.), Friday, Nov. 12, TBA (Oakdale, N.Y.)

Second Round
SNHU/Bloomfield Winner vs. #1 Franklin Pierce, Saturday, Nov. 13, 7 p.m. (Sodexo Field, Rindge, N.H.)
SCSU/Dominican Winner vs. #2 Dowling, Sunday, Nov. 14, TBA (at Oakdale, N.Y.)

Super Region 1 Championship (Saturday, Nov. 20 or Sunday, Nov. 21)
Franklin Pierce/SNHU/Bloomfield Winner vs. SCSU/Dominican/Dowling Winner (at site of highest remaining seed)