NCAA Championships Digital Program

The Emory University men's soccer team will make the 14^th appearance in the NCAA Division III Championships in 2012, opening up postseason tournament play at Roanoke College on Thursday, November 8^th at 6:00 PM.

Venue Information
The game will be played at Donald J. Kerr Stadium, on the campus of Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia.  General admission tickets with be $6, while student and senior tickets are $3, and tickets for children ages 3-12 are $2.

Coverage
For those Emory fans unable to attend the game, there will be both live stats and a live video webcast of Thursday's first-round match up.  The live stats can be viewed at http://www.sidearmstats.com/roanoke/msoc/scoreboard.aspx, while the webcast can be watched at http://maroons.roanoke.edu/showcase/.

Emory Eagles
The Eagles made the NCAA Division III Championships with an at-large bid to the field, following the team's push at the end of the season, during which Emory was 7-2-1 in its final 10 games, and 4-1-1 in its last six.  The squad is 10-6-2 overall in 2012, including a 5-4-0 record in all games away from home.  Emory was one of four teams to share the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship this season, giving the program its seventh conference title.  The Eagles were ranked ninth in the latest NSCAA South Atlantic Region poll.

Senior co-captain and former all-American Andrew Natalino has scored 12 goals (65^th in D-III) and 26 points (98^th in D-III), to lead the Eagles' offensive attack, which has averaged 2.28 goals per game this season, the 70^th-best mark among Division III teams in 2012.  Sophomore Dylan Price has added 11 goals and 25 points, including a team-best six game-winning goals, and junior Andrew Jones has contributed with four goals and five assists.  Senior defender and co-captain David Garofalo leads all Eagles with six assists this season.

While Emory's offense has produced solid results this season, as of late, it has been the Eagles' defense that has guided the team to victory, including back-to-back shutouts to end the season.  Emory has outshot its opponents in all but one game this season, and held opposing teams to 10 or fewer shots in 10 contests.  Over the team's last 11 games, Emory has allowed an average of just 3.3 shots on goal per game.  The starting backline of Garofalo, senior Alex Scott, sophomore Noah Rosen and freshman Matt Sherr and freshman goalkeeper Abe Hannigan (8-3-1, 1.18 GAA, .651 save percentage, three shutouts) have all helped contribute to a team 1.27 goals against average and six shutouts this season.

Emory head coach Sonny Travis will be making his fourth appearance in six seasons with Emory.   He has gone 78-26-7 with the Eagles, winning a pair of UAA Championships.  Travis' career 372-118-44 record ranks him 14^th among active Division III coaches in victories, and his .738 winning percentage is the 10th-best among active D-III coaches.  Travis will be joined by fourth-year assistant Ben Buerger, second-year goalkeeper coach Clayton Schmitt, and student assistant Dehmeh Smith.

Roanoke Maroons
The Maroons earned an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament by virtue of winning the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Championship with a 1-0 double overtime victory over Virginia Wesleyan College on Sunday.  The win brought the Maroons' season ledger to 13-4-1, including a mark of 9-2-0 in home games.  The team will enter the tournament on a six-match winning streak, and has won 11 of its last 13 games.  Roanoke received votes in the latest D3Soccer.com poll, and was ranked seventh in the last NSCAA South Atlantic Region poll.

Roanoke's strength this season has been its defense, which has recorded a goals-against average of 0.95 this season, the 69^th-lowest mark in Division III this season.  Freshman goalkeeper Cole Sinclair ranks 44^th in Division III with a 0.782 GAA, to go along with a .818 save percentage and a 10-2-1 record.    He has been aided by senior defender and ODAC All-Tournament selection Chris Conover, as the Maroons' defense has helped the squad outshoot opponents 246-187, including a 127-81 edge in shots on goal.

Offensively, Roanoke has been led by senior midfielder AJ Tierce, who has scored seven goals and assisted on three others for 17 points, while Brian White has added five goals and four assists for 14 points and Garrett Eldridge has scored four goals and recorded three assists for 11 points.  The Maroons have scored a total of 35 goals this season, and rank 109^th in Division III with just over two goals per game.

The Maroons are led by Scott Allison, who has compiled a 309-161-40 career record and is now in his 27^th and final season as the team's head coach (he has announced his retirement effective at the end of the 2012 campaign).  Allison is assisted by Declan Coll.

Matchup History
Thursday's game will be the fifth meeting all-time between Emory and Roanoke, and just the second since 1995.  The two teams have split the previous four meetings, each going 2-2-0.  On September 3^rd of last season, the Eagles and the Maroons played in Salem, VA (the only other road game Emory has played in the all-time series), with Roanoke coming away with a 3-2 win, despite unassisted goals from Price and Javier Puga.  The Eagles outshoot the Maroons 13-6 in the game, including an 8-5 edge in shots on goal.

Emory Notes
The winner of Thursday's game will play at top-ranked Messiah College (19-0-1) for the second round of the NCAA Championships… Messiah received one of the two first-round byes in the NCAA Championship field of 62 teams… Emory has not allowed an opponent to take double-digit shots on goal in its last 24 games, dating back to October 14^th, 2011… The Eagles have outshot opposing teams 321-179 this season, including a 139-84 advantage in shots on goal.