|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
UST Men’s Soccer Team Advances to NAIA Championship
11/17/2010
 For the third consecutive season, the Celts Men’s Soccer team earned the No. 2 seed in the NAIA Association of Independent Institutions tournament held Wednesday, Nov.10, with the finals on Saturday, Nov. 13, at the Reach Eleven Sports Complex in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Celts faced off against No. 3 seed Lambuth University on Thursday night in Phoenix, AZ to try to earn a spot in the A.I.I. Championship match. The last time these teams met was in the 2008 A.I.I. semi finals where Lambuth won a decisive victory 5-1 over the Celts before going on to win the 2008 Championship. Ten of the current Celts played in that match and were looking forward to the chance to repay the favor. The Celts started the match showing signs of nerves and in the 12th minute gave up the opening goal of the match when Lambuth’s Daniel Ericcson found himself open in the penalty area and headed a free kick into the back of the net. The rest of the half was a back and forth battle but ended 1-0 at half time. The Celts came out looking like the team that had only lost once in its last 8 matches. UST dominated most of the second half’s possession but struggled to find the equalizer. Finally in the 88th minute, senior Otto Valdez hit a rebound past the Lambuth goalkeeper to draw the Celts even and send the match into overtime.
In the first golden goal overtime period Jad El-Masri took a shot that deflected off a Lambuth defender’s hand and the Celts were awarded a penalty kick. Senior Efrain Orozco stepped up and fired the penalty into the back of the net to send UST to its first ever A.I.I. Conference Championship. Lukas Simon played a superb game in the net and came up with some key saves during the match.
Saturday afternoon would put No. 1 seed Simon Fraser(No. 4 nationally) against the No. 2 seed University of St. Thomas. UST came out off the line quickly and almost scored in the opening minutes when Jad El-Masri connected on an Efrain Orozco corner kick with the header narrowly missing the top corner. Against the run of play in the 11th minute SFU’s, Roman Doutkevitch(Tournament MVP) found space on the back side of the penalty area and received a diagonal ball that he controlled and finished to put SFU up 1-0. The Celts continued to stay composed and played well, controlled a good part of the half, but went into halftime down 0-1. In the second half the Celts continued to play and possess well, but struggled in the final third to get a good look. The few good chances that UST created were handled by SFU goalkeeper Hide Ozawa. The Celts never quit and fought hard till the end but the game finished 0-1 for SFU.
The Celts earned their first ever birth to the NAIA National Tournament with their performance in the A.I.I. tournament. They will face No. 8 seed Belhaven University at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 20. The game will be played in Jackson, Miss.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
