#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)