MEN’S SOCCER TO TAKE ON NO. 20 UMASS-LOWELL IN FIRST NCAA TOURNAMENT APPEARANCE

NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Tournament Bracket

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (Nov. 11, 2008) - On Monday, the National Collegiate Athletic Association released its 32-team field for the 2008 Division II Men's Soccer Tournament, and Molloy College notched the No. 5 seed in the East Region. The Lions will face the 20th-ranked and fourth-seeded River Hawks of University of Massachusetts - Lowell at Southern New Hampshire University on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.

The picture shown above features several members of the Molloy men's soccer team celebrating after seeing that they were picked to the tournament. On a side note, this is the first men's squad in school history to ever make it to NCAA postseason play.

The winner of the contest will take on the top-seeded and host SNHU, which received a first-round bye, in the semifinal round on Sunday. The victor of that game will battle the winner of the other Super Regional, which features No. 2 seed and 12th-ranked Dowling College, third-seeded Le Moyne College and No. 6 seed Franklin Pierce University, in the regional final next week.

The Lions head into the tournament with an overall record of 12-5-2. They are also riding a five-game winning streak and a seven-game unbeaten stretch. Furthermore, Molloy is coming off of snatching its first-ever East Coast Conference title after a 1-0 win over then the eighth-ranked Golden Lions of Dowling College this past Saturday in Brookhaven, N.Y.

At the present time, sophomore forward Emmanuel Gamez (Freeport, N.Y.) serves as the leading scorer for the Lions with 23 points off of eight goals and seven assists. Trailing one point behind him is sophomore midfielder Jose Batista (Forest Hills, N.Y.), who has accumulated 22 points (7 G, 8 A) thus far. The other 20-point scorer is senior forward Nick D'Alessandro (West Hempstead, N.Y.). He has recorded eight goals and four assists.

The Molloy defense has been strong at-best - yielding just four goals during its winning period. At the helm of that has been ECC Goalkeeper of the Year and first-team selection, senior Ettore Morelli (North Bellmore, N.Y.). He has put together a spectacular senior year - knocking down 86 shots, while compiling a 1.18 goals-against average and a .789 save percentage.

UMass-Lowell enters with a ledger of 11-2-4. The River Hawks finished shy of a Northeast-10 Conference title after dropping a 2-1 decision to the Dolphins of Le Moyne in the semifinal round. However, they were the regular season co-champion along with Southern New Hampshire in the NE-10. UML has been led by senior forward Jamie Kangia (Thiya, Kenya), who has registered 21 points on nine goals and five assists.

Sophomore forward Stephen Potcner (Wilmington, Mass.) ranks second with 20 points (8 G, 4 A). Senior forward Matt Dubois (Dracut, Mass.) has nine goals for 18 points, which is third-best on the team. Junior keeper Ryan Richards (Holden, Mass.) owns a record of 11-2-4 (six SHO) with 52 saves, a goals-against average of 1.05 and a save percentage of .732.

Southern New Hampshire comes in nationally-ranked at No. 8. The Penmen are 15-2-4 and won the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament with a 1-0 blanking of Le Moyne last Saturday. SNHU, which has out-scored its opposition this season by a count of 33-7, is headed up in the scoring department by junior forward Adrian Schippers (Ashby, Mass.). He has tallied eight markers and dished off six assists for a total of 22 points.

Junior forward Paulson Edum (Calabar, Nigeria) is the other double-digit scorer for the Penmen with 19 points (8 G, 3 A). Senior netminder Sean Lambert (Rehoboth, Mass.) has had a star-studded year for them with a 14-2-4 record. 11 of those wins have also come via shutout. He has also made 41 saves, while compiling a 0.34 GAA and an .854 save percentage.

Live Stats will be provided for all games. You can view them by clicking the following link: http://livestats.prestosports.com/southernnh. Southern New Hampshire will also be running a video stream of all regional contests at www.snhupenmen.com/information/video.