Sports Information Department – 112 Dods Hall
Phone (716) 673-3100 / Fax (716) 673-3136

CONTACT: Jerry Reilly,
Sports Information Director

DATE: Mon., Nov. 7, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE/NOTE TIME CHANGE TO 1:30 P.M.

Men's soccer

Blue Devils earn NCAA berth

FREDONIA, N.Y. -- Fredonia State received an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Tournament, which begins this week.

One of three SUNYAC teams in the tournament, the Blue Devils (15-3-3) will meet Carnegie Mellon (13-2-1) 1:30 p.m. Saturday in a first-round game at John Carroll University in Cleveland.

In the other first-round game, John Carroll (12-6-1) will square off against Washington & Jefferson (15-5-0).

The two Saturday winners will play Sunday, tentatively at 1 p.m., for the right to advance to sectional competition.

Site of this weekend's games is John Carroll's Don Shula Stadium.

A total of 57 teams received tournament berths: 36 automatic qualifiers, 4 from Pool B (independent colleges or teams from non-qualifying NCAA conferences), and 17 from Pool C.

The Blue Devils are a Pool C selection in that they were chosen from a conference which also received an automatic berth. Plattsburgh will represent SUNYAC as the conference champion, while Brockport -- which lost to Plattsburgh in the SUNYAC title game Saturday -- will also move on as a Pool C team.

Brockport earned the right to face Plattsburgh for the title by defeating the Blue Devils, 4-2, in the shootout portion of their SUNYAC semifinal last Friday. The teams had played to a 0-0 double-overtime tie prior to the shootout.

The NCAA appearance is the eighth by the Blue Devils, and the first since 1997. They twice advanced as far as the NCAA semfinals (1985 and 1986), each time losing to eventual NCAA champion UNC-Greensboro.

2005 NCAA Men's Division III Soccer selection story

2005 NCAA Men's Division III Soccer bracket

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