Gator men's soccer team making tremendous strides in first season
Sage has earned a spot in the 2010 Skyline Conference Tournament and will host St. Joseph's on Sat., Oct. 30 in the quarterfinals.
A FIRST-YEAR PROGRAM, SAGE MEN'S SOCCER TEAM EARNS
CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT BID AND HOME GAME
Albany, NY---The Sage Colleges launched their men's soccer program this fall. It did not take long for the program to start to click and make their opponents take notice as head coach Kyle Clancy's off-season hard work began to pay off. The team has earned the No. 4 seed and a home game in the upcoming 2010 Skyline Conference Men's Soccer Tournament. Sage will host the Eagles of St. Joseph's College on Saturday, October 30 at 6:15 p.m. at the Plumeri Sports Complex. The winner will advance to the league's semifinals on November 3 at top seeded Maritime College. The 2010 Skyline Conference champion will earn an automatic berth to the 2010 NCAA Division III Championship.
With 22 players of the 26 on the roster playing collegiate soccer for the first time this season, the young Gators have not displayed many signs of inexperience. Sage's Gators have put many notches in their belts this fall in a short period of time. The first win did not take too long as the Gators tallied a 3-2 win over Wells College (September 8, 2010) in their third match. Ten days later, the team would pull off the first of many upsets as they opened play in the Skyline Conference. Sage hosted the league-preseason favorite, St. Joseph's College in the first league match. Sage opened Skyline action on September 18 with a 4-1 win and by the end of September, the team would boast a 2-0-1 record in Skyline Conference action.
Clancy's Gators proved to be the spoilers this fall many times and would stand atop the league for nearly three weeks this season. The team went 6-3-1 in conference action and owns a 7-7-1 overall record with one regular-season contest left on the docket and at least one post-season game to follow.
Sage's offense has tallied 30 goals, while yielding just 16 in 15 contests. The 16 goals allowed leads the league with fewest goals allowed by any team. Clancy's Gators have received acclaim as well for their efforts as three times Sage has produced the Skyline Conference Rookie of the Week, while four times a Gator has earned a spot on the Skyline Conference men's soccer weekly honor roll.
Minding the Gators' goal has been a rookie Carmen Volpe (Cohoes, NY/Christian Brothers Academy) and he ranks among the league leaders in goal. He sports a 1.02 goals against average with an .824 saves percentage. He leads the conference with his GAA and ranks first in saves percentage as well.
Offensively, the team has found another rookie as their leader. Freshman forward Scott Jarosz (Brunswick, ME/Brunswick) has 15 points thus far. He became the first player to tally a hat trick this season as his three-goal performance was the difference in the team's 4-1 win over NYU-Poly this month. With seven goals and an assist, he is just two points ahead of freshman defender Chris Giustina (Enfield, CT/Enrico Fermi), who has five goals and three assists for 13 points.
All told, the Gators have 12 different players that have found the net, while seven have more than one goal this season.
Clancy's troops yield from four different states as 20 are from New York State, while another four are from Connecticut with one from Maine and another from Vermont dotting the 2010 roster. These 26 players will look to put this program on the map with a possible shot at the 2010 NCAA Division III Tournament in their first year of varsity competition. The Gators will open their tournament run on Saturday with hopes of continuing the first chapter of the record book long into the month of November.
Sage now has 12 varsity teams with the addition of men's soccer and men's cross country to the mix this season. Last year, men's basketball and men's volleyball were the newest teams added to the mix and by season's end, the men's volleyball program also earned a spot in the Skyline Conference Tournament as the No. 4 seed in the four-team tournament. An NCAA Division III institution, the Gators compete as a member of the 11-team Skyline Conference, which sponsors championships in 17 sports.
