UPDATE: Thursday's match has been moved up to 2 p.m. from its original 5 p.m. start time due to the threat of inclement weather in Ithaca.

ITHACA, N.Y. – After earning an at-large bid to the field of 48, the Fordham men's soccer team will kick off NCAA Tournament action on Thursday night at Cornell.  Kick-off from Berman Field is set for 2 p.m. on ESPN+.
 
The Rams earned the program's sixth NCAA bid, their fifth in the last 11 seasons, on the heels of a stellar regular season against one of the nation's toughest schedules.  Entering the NCAA Tournament with an RPI of 29, the Rams went 8-5-5 against the seventh toughest slate in Division I.  The Rams earned results against two NCAA Tournament national seeds, posting a scoreless draw against No. 7 Hofstra and beating No. 5 Dayton, 4-2, both on the road.  Fordham also played non-conference matches against No. 6 Penn and Princeton (17 RPI).
 
In their previous five NCAA appearances, the Rams are 2-5-1 with all three results coming in the team's run to the quarterfinals of the 2017 tournament.  That season, Fordham took down St. Francis Brooklyn in the opening round before knocking off Virginia and advancing past Duke in penalty kicks before falling to North Carolina.  In two of their five previous NCAA appearances, the Rams have lost to the eventual national champions (St. John's in 1996 and Marshall in 2020-21).
 
Earlier this month, Fordham advanced to the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Championship for the eighth time in the past 11 seasons before falling to No. 5 Dayton, 2-0.  
 
The Rams have averaged 1.89 goals per game this season, good enough for a top-35 total in the nation.  Fordham is led offensively by Atlantic 10 Midfielder of the Year Daniel D'Ippolito, who ranks third in Division I with 33 points.  His 13 goals are the most by a Fordham player since 1998, when John Wolyniec scored a school-record 25 times before being selected seventh overall in the 1999 MLS College Draft.  D'Ippolito is tied for 10^th nationally in goals and ranks in the top 50 nationally with seven assists.  The Baldwin Place, N.Y., native has tallied two hat tricks on the year, becoming the first Fordham player to record multiple hat tricks in the same season since John Shannon in 1982.  His second hat trick came in the Altantic 10 Quarterfinal against Duquesne, earning him a spot on the All-Championship Team.
 
The Rams are one of the nation's most experienced squads, as every Ram with six or more starts this season is an upperclassmen.  Five graduate students, two seniors and four juniors started Fordham's Atlantic 10 semifinal match against Dayton.  One of those graduate students is goalkeeper Carter Abbott.  In his second year anchoring the Rams after graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Abbott carries a 1.11 goals against average and a .746 save percentage in 15 starts, four of which have been solo shutouts.  All eight of the Rams' wins have come with Abbott in net.
 
Cornell enters the NCAA Tournament with a record of 12-3-2, including a 5-2-0 mark in Ivy League play.  Cornell earned results against some big names in non-conference action, as the Big Red played then-No. 14 Georgetown to a 2-2 draw in early September before beating Penn State, 3-2, on the road.  Cornell also picked up a 1-0 road win at Syracuse.
 
Cornell boasts one of only two players in Division I with more points this season than D'Ippolito, as sophomore forward Alex Harris has 17 goals and five assists for 39 points.  The Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year has recorded five multi-goal games in 2024, including a hat trick against Dartmouth on Oct. 5.
 
Senior forward Alioune Ka ranks second on the team in scoring with six goals on the campaign.  Sophomore midfielder Connor Miller is tied for the Ivy League lead and ranks 15^th nationally with nine assists.
 
Junior goalkeeper Ryan Friedberg has played every minute between the pipes this season for the Big Red, compiling a 0.99 goals against average and a .726 save percentage with eight clean sheets.
 
The winner of Thursday's opening round match will travel to Pittsburgh on Sunday at 5 p.m. to take on the second-seeded Panthers.