Men's Soccer 11/14/2014 12:00:00 AM

PREVIEW: Men's Soccer Opens NCAAs with LIU Post

No. 6 SNHU (17-1-1) vs. LIU Post (15-4-1)
Larkin Field - Manchester, N.H.
NCAA East Regional - Second Round
Saturday, November 15, 2014 - 7:00 pm

SERIES VS. LIU POST: SNHU leads 19-4-1
LAST MEETING: November 22, 2013 - SNHU 3, LIU Post 1 (at Erie, Pa.)

THE PENMEN: Southern New Hampshire, ranked No. 6 nationally, captured its third straight Northeast-10 title with a 5-2 win over Southern Connecticut Sunday...Kenny Doublette leads the Penmen with 14 goals and five assists for 33 points...Sebastian Stezewski has totaled 10 goals and seven assists for 27 points...Jose Seoane, despite only playing in 10 games, is third on the team in scoring with 10 goals and three assists for 23 points...Sofiane Tergou has notched five goals and eight assists, while Brian Grisell has added five goals and seven assists...Miguel Carneiro has a team-high nine assists to go along with three goals...16 different players have scored at least one goal for the Penmen...the defense, led by NE-10 Player of the Year Callum Williams, has allowed 13 goals all season and posted 10 shutouts...the Penmen had a total of nine NE-10 All-Conference performers, including First Teamers Carneiro, Doublette, Stezewski, Williams and Dominic Samuel...graduate student keeper Dom DiMaggio has started all 19 games and owns a 0.58 goals-against average, .796 save percentage and seven shutouts.

HEAD COACH MARC HUBBARD: Marc Hubbard enters his seventh season as head men's soccer coach at SNHU...the 2013 NSCAA Division II Coach of the Year, and a three-time Northeast-10 Coach of the Year, Hubbard has guided the Penmen to six straight NCAA berths, including the 2013 national championship, and owns a career 117-20-15 (.819) record.

THE PIONEERS: LIU Post advanced with a 2-0 NCAA first round win over Long Island rival NYIT Thursday night...the Pioneers are led by Eivind Austboe, who has totaled 15 goals and three assists for 33 points...Dale McDonald has notched nine goals and four assists, while Per Forgaard has recorded seven goals and seven assists...Forgaard and Matias Ruiz each had a goal and an assist in Thursday's win...Jesper Malmstrom has started 15 of 19 games in goal for LIU Post and owns a 0.91 goals-against average and .745 save percentage with six shutouts.

WHAT'S NEXT: The winner advances to meet the winner of the other half of the East Region bracket next Thursday or Friday in a game that will be hosted by the highest remaining East Region seed...the top East seed will also host the Atlantic Region final, with the two region winners meeting in a national quarterfinal Saturday or Sunday.

NEWS AND NOTES: SNHU and LIU Post are meeting in NCAA play for the third time in four seasons...the Penmen prevailed 2-0 in a second round matchup in 2011, while last season in the East Region final, Southern New Hampshire posted a 3-1 win after falling behind 1-0 early...Dominic Samuel had two goals in that game...SNHU had their 37-game unbeaten streak (35-0-2) dating back to last season snapped against Le Moyne on October 25...the streak is the second longest in NCAA Division II history...prior to the loss, the Penmen had been unbeaten in 32 consecutive Northeast-10 contests. ..the Penmen have won 25 in a row at Larkin Field, establishing a program record...the previous record of 24 was set from 1988-90...SNHU has scored 76 goals in 19 games, averaging four goals a game...the Penmen are seeking their fourth straight trip to the East Region final and their third straight regional title...Keegan Campbell, Jonathan Lupinelli and Sebastian Stezewski were all named Capital One Academic All-District recently and are eligible for Academic All-America honors, which will be announced next week.