Men’s Soccer Draws Williams College in NCAA Division III Championship First Round
Printable Bracket
Digital Program
Webcast
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Elms College men's soccer team will travel to Williamstown, Mass. on Saturday, November 16 to take on Williams College in the NCAA Division III Championship First Round at Cole Field.
Elms (11-8-0) is making its second consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament following a 5-0 victory over Newbury College in the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championship title game which gave the Blazers an automatic bid. The Blazers were the top seed in the conference tournament and downed fifth seeded Lesley University, 1-0 before knocking of the second-seeded Nighthawks to earn their return trip to NCAA postseason play. Elms garnered the program's only other spot in the NCAA tournament last season and fell to No. 25 University of Scranton, 6-0 in first round action.
The Blazers are led by its four First Team All-NECC selections, senior forwards Adam O'Grady (Somers, Conn.) and Ziggy Jonathan (Springfield, Mass.), sophomore midfielder Safa Saady (Baghdad, Iraq) and sophomore defender Connor O'Grady (Somers, Conn.). Jonathan and Adam O'Grady each totaled nine goals during the season to lead the team, while Connor O'Grady registered four goals and four assists and Saady tabbed three goals and two assists.
Williams enters NCAA postseason play with an 11-6 overall record and secured an at-large bid after falling to No. 5 Amherst College, 1-0 in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championship finals. The Ephs topped Middlebury College, 3-2 in the first round of the NESCAC Championship and ousted Wesleyan University (Conn.), 2-1 in the semifinals to set up their meeting with the Lord Jeffs.
The Ephs are led by Matt Muralles (Weston, Fla.) who netted a team-high six goals and added two assists, Mohammed Rashid (Accra, Ghana) who followed with four goals and four assists and Matt Kastner (Mendham, N.J.) who struck for four goals and two assists.
Williams is making its 17th appearance in the NCAA Division III Championship and last season reached the semifinal round where it lost to Ohio Northern University, 3-2 in the San Antonio, Texas. The Ephs were national champions in 1995 and national runners-up in 1993.
Williams and Elms have never met in the sport of men's soccer. The two other teams in the pod are Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (13-4-2) and Western New England University (15-4-3) who will square off against each other on Saturday. Both Williams and MIT received votes in the most recent D3Soccer.com top 25 poll on November 5 with the Engineers notching seven votes and the Ephs receiving one vote.
The Blazers are 0-2-0 against MIT with meetings in 2009 and 2012, and 1-4-0 against Western New England with the last meeting coming in 2002.
