SPORTS NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Corey McCarthy
Saint Joseph’s College Athletics
207/893-6618

11/5/08– “Championship Saturday” to Cap Record-Breaking Fall Season for Saint Joseph’s

STANDISH, ME – On Saturday, November 8th the Saint Joseph’s College field hockey and men’s soccer teams will vie for their first NCAA Tournament berths to cap the most successful fall athletics season in recent memory.

The Lady Monks field hockey team, 14-4 overall and 5-1 in North Atlantic Conference play under fourth-year skipper Rupert Lewis, will play at Castleton State College (VT) (13-7, 5-1 NAC) on Saturday at 1:00 PM in the league title game. St. Joe’s earned the #3 seed in the league playoffs and proceeded to topple #4 Thomas College, 3-1, in a quarterfinal match. The Royal Blue went on to blank #2 seed, and 2007 NAC Champion, Maine-Farmington, 1-0, in the semi’s to advance to the NAC Championship. The winner of Saturday’s game earns the right to represent the North Atlantic Conference in the NCAA Tournament.

Saint Joseph’s handed top-seeded Castleton their only conference loss on October 5th when they defeated the visiting Spartans at Lakeside Field. The 2007 Lady Monks posted a 14-7 record and earned the program’s first berth into the ECAC D III Championships, where they fell in the title match to Bridgewater State, 1-0.

The Saint Joseph’s men’s soccer team, 12-5-3 overall and 6-2-1 in GNAC contests this fall under first-year Head Coach Joel Bancroft, will also travel to Vermont this weekend to challenge for a conference title and, consequently, a trip to the NCAA Tourney. The #3 seeded Monks will play at top-seeded Norwich University (16-2-1, 8-0-1 GNAC) at 11:00 AM on Saturday. En route to the title game, St. Joe’s posted a pair of shutouts, defeating #6 Johnson and Wales University, 1-0, in the GNAC quarterfinal and #2 Lasell College, 2-0, in the semifinal match.

The Monks were the only GNAC team to earn points from the Cadets this season, as they battled the Cadets to a 1-1 stalemate on September 20th in Northfield, VT. The trip to the league finale caps a considerable turnaround for the men’s soccer team after posting a 5-11-3 record in 2007.

Collectively this fall, the volleyball, field hockey and women’s and men’s soccer teams have posted a 48-37 record for a .565 winning percentage, the top mark since the college added field hockey as a varsity sport in 1995. The cross country program produced a GNAC Championship for the women’s team and an individual championship by Ryan Prescott ‘09 (Pittsfield, NH), for the second consecutive year on both fronts.

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