Maroons Headed to NCAA Tournament with Conference's Automatic Bid
SALEM, Va. --- For the ninth time in school
history, the Roanoke College men's soccer team won the ODAC
Championship, defeating Virginia Wesleyan, 1-0, in double-overtime
to take the title. With the win, the Maroons earn an
automatic bid to the 2012 NCAA Division III Men's Soccer
Tournament.
The ninth ODAC Championship for the Maroons (13-4-1) actually ties
the Marlins (8-10-2) all-time for second most conference titles,
and is Roanoke's seventh in the ODAC Tournament era.
Lynchburg leads all teams with 13. Roanoke and Virginia
Wesleyan last faced each other in the ODAC tournament in 2011 when
the Marlins ousted the Maroons, 2-0, in the quarterfinals.
The last ODAC championship game to go to overtime was in 2005, when
Virginia Wesleyan defeated Eastern Mennonite on penalty kicks.
The Maroons move on to play in the NCAA Tournament for the sixth
time in school history. The last appearance came in 2007,
when Roanoke lost in the opening round to Greensboro College,
2-1.
The game-winner came with just 59 seconds to play in the second
overtime period. AJ Tierce scored his
fifth game-winner of the season with a header goal off a pass
from Brian White to send the Maroons to the
NCAA Tournament. The goal was Tierce's seventh of the season
from White's fourth assist.
Virginia Wesleyan outshot Roanoke 14-4 during regulation (17-8
overall), and had multiple opportunities to score in the
contest. On one such occasion, Chris
Conover actually had to make a goal line save that kept
the Maroons in the contest.
Patrick Bain and Tierce led the Maroons in shots
with two each, while White, Tyler
Carbaugh, Dionys
Beck and Johnny Hughes each tallied
one. The Marlins' Travis Walke and Josh McNamara led all
players with four shots each. Cole Sinclair,
who played all 109-plus minutes in goal, tallied six saves.
The NCAA Selection Show will air at approximately 1:00 PM on
Monday, November 5, via live webcast on www.ncaa.com. If
you can't see the show, the time, date and location will be posted
on Facebook, Twitter and on maroons.roanoke.edu. The NCAA will also post a
release and the interactive bracket shortly after the conclusion of
the selection show.
2012 ODAC ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Cole Sinclair - Roanoke College
Chris Conover – Roanoke College
Brian White – Roanoke College
AJ Tierce – Roanoke College
Jake Burtch – Virginia Wesleyan College
Isaac Arrington – Virginia Wesleyan College
Josh McNamara – Virginia Wesleyan College
Josh Adams – Randolph College
John Vecchietti – Randolph College
Robin Gollbach – Washington and Lee University
Albert Civitarese – Washington and Lee University
--- This release is
courtesy of the Roanoke College sports information department.
---
maroons.roanoke.edu