PREVIEW: Men’s Soccer Hits The Road To Open First GNAC Tournament

WESTON, Mass. - The Regis (Mass.) men’s soccer team enters its first Great Northeast Athletic Conference Tournament as the No. 5 seed and with it a visit to No. 4 Mount Ida for a quarterfinal matchup against the Mustangs Sunday, Oct. 29.

Head coach Renato Capobianco has a lot of optimism heading into the tournament. “To go into a new conference, do as well as we did especially considering all the setbacks we’ve had and to play a foe that we’ve been playing for four years, it’ll be a tremendous battle.”

“The team is really excited,” added senior back Collin Thurston. “The team has been bonding the harder the teams are that we play it seems, and we’re trying to play at their level. I think we’ll have a good showing at the GNAC Tournament.”

The Pride had secured a spot in the league’s postseason tournament with two games remaining and a win against Emmanuel on the final day of the regular season would have clinched a first-round home game. Regis would come up just a bit short after playing the Saints to a 1-1 draw and had to settle for an opening round road match.

Regis and Mount Ida finished the season both with 5-4-1 league records but the Mustangs won the head-to-head tiebreaker with a September overtime win over the Pride. The game saw a Regis equalizer in the 79th minute but Mount Ida scoring the sudden victory goal less than four minutes into overtime.

The Regis attack is led by juniors Litchie Barbosa and Derek Triana. Barbosa, who set a new program career mark for assists, finished the season tied for first in the league in that category with 12. Triana, the Pride’s all-time leading goalscorer, has 14 this season which is third in the GNAC.

Kickoff against Mount Ida in the single elimination tournament is set for 1:00 p.m. with the winner taking on either top-seeded Saint Joseph’s (Me.) or No. 8 seed Suffolk on Wednesday, Nov. 1. The championship game is slated for Saturday, Nov. 4.

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