Cortland Sports Information Department
The Cortland men's soccer team has earned a berth into the 64-team NCAA Division III playoffs and will host a four-team regional on Saturday and Sunday, November 13-14. The Red Dragons (16-2-1) will play Nazareth (13-1-3) in the first round Saturday at 5 p.m., with the other first-round game featuring Gettysburg (13-5-2) and Kean University of New Jersey (12-4-3) at 7:30 p.m. The two winners will meet in the second round at Cortland Sunday at 6 p.m.
Cortland, under 10th-year head coach Steve Axtell, will be making its 23rd NCAA tournament appearance and fifth since 2014. The Red Dragons were the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) regular-season champions and defeated Buffalo State, 2-1, in the league tournament semifinals last Wednesday and Oswego, 6-0, in the finals this past Saturday for the program's 19th conference title and the league's NCAA automatic berth.
Under Axtell, Cortland advanced to the NCAA "Sweet 16" in 2018, 2016 and 2014, tying for ninth nationally in those seasons, and the Red Dragons won their tournament opener in 2017 and tied for 17th place. Overall, Cortland has nine top-five national finishes, including a second-place showing in 1977, a third-place finish in 1978 and a tie for third in 1982. Three of Cortland's previous NCAA tournament appearances came as a Division I program in 1960, 1964 and 1966 prior to the advent of Division III.
Graduate student Blake Aronson (Huntington Station/Walt Whitman) leads Cortland with 13 goals this fall, including eight game-winning tallies. Anthony Ruggiero (Holtsville/Sachem East) has 10 goals and six assists for 26 points. He's scored five game-winning goals. Jack Coleman (Endwell/Maine-Endwell) has five goals and leads the Red Dragons with eight assists. Braden Melveney (Syracuse/Cicero-North Syracuse) has started all 19 games in goal and has a 0.67 GAA, an .831 save percentage and 10 shutouts.
Nazareth will be making its fourth NCAA tournament appearance. The Golden Flyers, who also appeared in the 2019 tournament, earned an automatic bid this season after defeating Houghton, 2-0, in the Empire 8 championship game last Saturday. Nazareth is unbeaten in its last 14 games (12-0-2).
Gettysburg is an at-large selection into this year's tournament field. Gettysburg lost in the Centennial Conference finals to Washington (Md.), 2-0. The Bullets are making their ninth NCAA showing overall. They played in the 2019 tournament, but prior to that their last appearance was in 2001.
Kean (pronounced KANE) earned an NCAA automatic bid after capturing the New Jersey Athletic Conference title. The Cougars tied both Rutgers-Newark, 1-1, in the semifinals and Rowan, 0-0, in the finals and won penalty kicks in both games. Kean is making its 17th NCAA appearance and first since 2016. The Cougars won the 1992 national title and were semifinalists in 1984.
