Young Guns Look To Keep Momentum Going

WINTER PARK, Fla. - The No. 15 University of Tampa Spartans (14-6-1) prepare for the first round of the NCAA Division II men's soccer championship set to be held Friday at 5 p.m. eastern time on the campus of Rollins College in Winter Park.

The NCAA South Region No. 2 seed will take on the No. 3 seed Barry located on Regional hosts' Rollins College turf. The winner will face the champion of the match-up between Rollins and West Florida.

Tampa won its last meeting against Sunshine State Conference foe, Barry University in the SSC tournament semifinals (2-1). Tampa leads the all-time series record versus Barry (16-9-2) splitting this season (1-1).

"Barry is an outstanding team whose players received all of our conference awards along with their coach," says head coach Adrian Bush. "We know it will be another tough game. We just hope to be competitive."

The SSC tournament champions are lead in scoring by first team all-SSC candidate Lister Warren accumulating 12 goals this year as Second team all-SSC nominee Ryan Griffin follows with seven goals respectively. Guiding the squad in assists is junior Kemal Malcolm racking in a total of six.

"The team has responded well after losing eight starters, three All-Americans and five all-South Region players in 2009," continues Bush. "As the underdogs once again this weekend, our guys are playing with a nothing to lose attitude. We are the last team anybody (outside our program) thought would be here."

On the defensive end, Tampa is led by first team all-SSS Brian Fekete establishing 11 points this year. Protecting the goal is second team all-SSC keeper David Niepel. The freshman dishes out a (0.85) GAA and had recorded 10 shut-outs this season.

Mark Anderson leads the Buccaneers with 10 goals and nine assists as fellow teammate Sascha Koettig follows with nine and eight respectively. In goal for Barry is Johnny Rodrigues registering a (0.57) GAA.

Live stats for the South Regional will be available through www.tampaspartans.com.

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