No. 4 Hobart visits for season finale
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Saturday preview
FREDONIA, N.Y. -- It's been a rare season for the Fredonia State men's soccer team - and not in a positive sense.
The Blue Devils (9-8-0) will miss the post-season for only the second time in P.J. Gondek's nine years as head coach. Twice during those nine years, Gondek had his team in the NCAA Tournament, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2005.
The road back to the upper echelon of teams could very well get its start Saturday when the Blue Devils meet Hobart at 1 p.m. on the University Stadium pitch. The visiting Statesmen (15-0-2) are No. 4 in the NCAA Division III national rankings.
"It has been an unusual season to date," Gondek said, "but to have the No. 4 team in the nation at home on Senior Day will give us a very necessary idea of what we need to do to get back to the top of our region."
The Blue Devils and Statesmen met twice last season, the second time in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the University of Rochester. The Blue Devils made the 2007 national tournament by winning the SUNYAC title for the seventh time.
This season, the Blue Devils were 3-7-0 in the conference and failed to make the six-team SUNYAC field for the first time since 2002. Prior to this season, that was the only other year since this 1994 the Blue Devils failed to play in a post-season tournament.
In the other home event Saturday, the Blue Devil swimming and diving team will take on Rochester Institute of Technology at 1 p.m. in the Steele Hall Natatorium.
Three other Blue Devil teams are on the road: women's volleyball at the Vassar Tournament (matches at 10 a.m. and noon), men's and women's cross country at Letchworth State Park for the SUNYAC championship meet (men at 11 a.m., women at noon), and men's hockey at Potsdam starting at 7 p.m.
Updates will be posted throughout the day on the Fredonia State athletics web site (www.fredonia.edu/athletics/).