Men’s Soccer NCAA Preview: Tartans Host Action for Second Straight Year

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's soccer team received an at-large bid to the 2013 NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship which begins nationwide today, November 14. The Tartans will be hosting the first and second rounds of the championship on Saturday, November 16 and Sunday, November 17.

The 12th-ranked Tartans will play in the first game of the weekend on Saturday  at 11:00 a.m. against the Virginia Wesleyan College Marlins.

This is the second straight season the Tartans have received a bid to the NCAA Championship tournament. The Tartans finished their regular season play with a record of 11-2-3 and were second in the University Athletic Association (UAA). This year marks the Tartans' 11th visit to the championship with a record of 5-10. Head coach Arron Lujan has guided the program to a 4-3 record in the last three appearances, winning the first round game each season.

The Tartans are led by senior Chris Wysocki (Newtown, Pa./Germantown Academy) with seven goals on the season and fellow senior Max Tassano (Bala Cynwyd, Pa./Lower Merion) who has six goals.  The team totals 27 goals on the season.

The defensive front for the Tartans is led by senior goalkeeper Christopher Madden (Reistertown, Md./Calvert Hall).  Madden has saved 44 shots with a percentage of .800 and holds a goals against average of 0.76.  He has recorded six of the team's nine shutouts this season while the team ranks 14th in the nation in shutout percentage (0.56) and 22nd in goals against average (0.65).

After finishing 16-4-1 during the regular season as champions of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, the Marlins have earned their 17th trip to the NCAA Championship tournament and their first since 2009.

The top scorer for the Marlins is senior Brian Cornell (Front Royal, Va./Warren County) with 10 goals. He is followed closely by freshman teammate Kyle Fisher (Virginia Beach, Va./,Landstown) who has recorded nine goals.  The Marlins, including Cornell and Fisher, have six players with more than five goals on the season.

The Marlins defense is headed by sophomore goalkeeper Connor Kirkham (Centreville, Va./Chantilly Westfield) with a GAA of 1.08 and 77 saves during the regular season.

This will be the first-ever match-up between the Tartans and the Marlins in school history; however, Carnegie Mellon head coach, Arron Lujan, was an assistant coach at Virginia Wesleyan while Marlins head coach Chris Mills was a student-athlete at the college. Mills, a first-year head coach, is not a stranger to the NCAA tournament as he played in two and was an assistant coach for the Marlins' Sweet 16 team in 2007.

The second game will take place between the Misericordia University Cougars (13-5-1) and the #22 Montclair State University Red Hawks (15-3-2).  The winners of these contests will play on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. to determine who will continue to move forward into the sectionals round of the NCAA Championship tournament.