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West Windsor,
N.J. -- Not only will the nation's top teams converge on Mercer
County Community College for the National Junior College Athletic
Association Division I Men's Soccer Championship from November 18-22,
but many of the national statistical leaders will put their skills
on display as well. Coaches from four-year programs will be well-served
by taking in the action.
The tournament
begins with a team banquet, T-shirt exchange and the NJCAA Soccer
Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Wednesday, November 18. The eight-team
tournament kicks off at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 19 with
top-seeded Tyler (Texas) Junior College playing No. 8-seeded Iowa
Central Community College (Fort Dodge, IA ).
Seven of the
top eight teams in the NJCAA national poll will play in the tournament.
The other opening-round games on November 19 are: No. 4 Yavapai
College (Prescott, Ariz.) versus No. 5 Louisburg (N.C.) College,
noon; No. 2 Georgia Perimeter College (Decatur, Ga.) versus No.
7 Essex County College (Newark, N.J.), 2:30 p.m.; and No. 3 Schoolcraft
College (Livonia, Mich.) versus No. 6 Barton County Community College
(Great Bend, Kan.), 5 p.m.
The No. 1 goalkeeper
in the most recent NJCAA statistics, Ian McDonald-Wilkins of Schoolcraft,
will bring his national-best 0.45 goals-against average to the nationals.
Other top-ranked goalies in the tournament include Patrick Murphy
of Louisburg, ranked 12th nationally with a 0.71 GAA, and Josh Euell
of Barton, 13th at 0.74.
Among scorers
are Louisburg's Carl Munday, who is third nationally with 66 points
(28 goals and 10 assists), Kevin Ellis of Barton, who is eighth
with 50 points (21 goals and eight assists in 19 games), David Malloy
of Yavapai, who is ninth (21 goals and eight assists in 21 games),
and the Essex pair of Herve Valcourt (18-11-47) and Sheldon Palmer
(17-11-45), who are 10th and 11th, respectively.
Yavapai won
the 2007 and 2008 national titles.
A tournament
pass for all 11 games is available for $30. General admission tickets
cost $12 per day and are good for all games that day. Non-MCCC students
who have a valid high school or college ID and seniors ages 62 and
up pay only $25 for a tournament pass or $10 for a daily general
admission ticket.
Students, faculty
and staff with a valid Mercer County Community College ID will be
admitted free of charge. Also, MCCC will offer free admission to
children 12 and under who wear their youth soccer team jerseys to
the tournament. Admission for all other children 12 and under is
$3 per day.
A
full schedule and additional tournament information is available
here.
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