Adelphi Men's Soccer Left Out of NCAAs

The Adelphi men's soccer team, despite its' 13-2-4 record, was left out of the the NCAA Division-I tournament when the 48-team field was revealed Monday night.

The Panthers, led by freshman sensation Issa Tall, breezed through the Atlantic Soccer Conference. On Sunday, they defeated Longwood, 2-1, to capture the school's second conference tournament championship. Tall, who led the team in scoring with 16 goals, found the back of the net in the second half to extend the lead to 2-0.

But winning both the ASC regular season title and the conference tournament proved to be too little to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, and a chance to play for the College Cup.

"We were hoping to get in, since we tied Princeton early on," said head coach Carlo Acquista. "But the NCAA is very meticulous in the way they grant at-large bids."

Despite good showings against tournament-bound teams like Princeton and Stony Brook, a key early-season loss to Brown University was one of the deciding factors that kept the Panthers on the outside looking in, as Brown secured one of the final at-large bids.

The Atlantic Soccer Conference is not one of the 21 conferences across the country whose tournament champion is granted an automatic bid.

Stony Brook University, who will face Brown in a first round game in Providence, R.I., was granted a spot as the representative of the America East Conference despite finishing the season with a 6-9-4 record.