Men's Soccer Opens A-10 Championship Against UMass on Thursday

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The Fordham men's soccer team is back in the Atlantic 10 Championship, looking to defend their conference title from a year ago.  The Rams are looking for their third Atlantic 10 title overall, and trying to become the first back-to-back Atlantic 10 champion since Xavier in 2010 and 2011.

The Rams enter the tournament as the #4 seed, after posting a 4-3-1 conference record and winning a four-way tie-breaker.  Fordham will face a team they are very familiar with in the Massachusetts Minutemen, as the two squads faced each other in the regular season finale in Amherst.  The Minutemen took that contest by a 1-0 score in overtime.  The winner of that contest will face the winner of the George Washington-VCU game in the first Atlantic 10 semifinal on Friday.

The championship game is set for Sunday, November 15th, at noon and will be televised nationally by the American Sports Network.  That game will be seen locally in the New York area on SportsNet NY (SNY).

SERIES HISTORY: This will be the 20th all-time meeting between the Rams and Minutemen.  Massachusetts holds a 13-6-0 edge in the series, following their 1-0 win in overtime this past Saturday at Rudd Field.    The two teams have never met at the Atlantic 10 Championship.

LAST TIME OUT: Massachusetts' Casey Hamill scored 6:33 into overtime to punch the Minutemen's ticket into the Atlantic 10 Championship, as they defeated the Fordham Rams in men's soccer action at Rudd Field in Amherst, Mass.

After a scoreless first half, Fordham had an opportunity in in the 60th minute off a set piece.  Janos Loebe took a corner kick from the near side, crossing the ball into the ball.  Matthew Lewis came through the UMass defense for a diving header that was grabbed by Minutemen goalkeeper Jorge Becerra.
 
The game remained scoreless into overtime when the Minutemen struck in the 97th minutefor the game-winning goal. Casey Hamill got loose in the in the box after the ball bounced off a player, and scored his first goal of the season from eight yards out.

In goal, Fordham's Dan Miklos made three saves, while Becerra had five for the Minutemen.

IRON MAN: After seeing a number of his fellow defenders miss games due to injury, sophomore defender Matthew Lewis has stepped up his game in his second year with the team.

Lewis has started every game for the second straight season and played the most minutes (1604) for the Rams, anchoring a backline with a freshman goalkeeper to six shutouts this season.  For his efforts, he was named Second Team All-Atlantic 10 in a vote of the league's coaches.