University of Delaware Athletics
Delaware Welcomes Three CAA Foes to Stuart and Suzanne Grant Stadium For CAA Semifinal Action Friday
11/10/2014 1:40:00 PM | Men's Soccer
NEWARK, Del. – After a 5-2-1 Colonial Athletic Association record this season, the University of Delaware won the CAA regular season title and will host the CAA Tournament for the first time in program history.
James Madison, UNCW, Northeastern, and Delaware will compete for the conference championship and automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. The tournament began last Saturday with two quarterfinal games. James Madison defeated Hofstra 2-0, while Northeastern advanced with a 2-0 win over Elon.
Ian Hennessy. "This senior class has been the spine of our success for the last four years and have won almost everything there is to be won at UD. Our first CAA championship, first regular season CAA title, two NCAA appearances, and our first NCAA win. As we limp home I would dearly love for them to leave with the performance of their careers, and bring back a huge crowd for a final celebration on Sunday"The second-seeded Seahawks (12-3-2, 5-2-1 CAA) will square off with the six-seeded Dukes (8-7-4, 3-3-2 CAA) at 4 p.m. Friday to start off the semifinal action.
Following the UNCW/James Madison contest, the top-seeded Blue Hens (12-5-1, 5-2-1 CAA) will face fifth-seeded Northeastern (8-10-1, 4-3-1 CAA) at 7 p.m. Both games will take place at Stuart and Suzanne Grant Stadium
The winners of the two semifinal matchups will play Sunday at 1 p.m. at the University of Delaware's Stuart and Suzanne Grant Stadium. The final will be televised on the American Sports Network.
ADMISSIONS
General admission for the 2014 CAA Men's Soccer Championships is $7 for adults and $5 for seniors/ youth (17 and younger) each day. All participating institution's students are admitted free of charge with a valid student ID. To purchase tickets online in advance, click here.
PARKING ADVISORY
Parking is available in Lot 88 (in front of Delaware Stadium). After parking, fans should walk between Delaware Stadium and the Bob Carpenter Center to access Stuart & Suzanne Grant Stadium.
CONCESSIONS
A variety of concessions will be available towards the north side of Stuart & Suzanne Grant Stadium.
Visit BlueHens.com and follow Delaware Men's Soccer online at facebook.com/DelawareMensSoccer and on Twitter at @DelawareMSOC. For live updates over the weekend, follow @CAASports on Twitter and use the official league championships hashtag - #CAAChamps.
HEN SCRATCHINGS:
- Delaware earned the No. 1 seed in the CAA Tournament with a 2-1 victory over Elon on Nov. 2. A loss in that game would have given UD the No. 5 seed in the tournament.
- The win earned the Blue Hens the CAA regular season title for the first time in program history.
- Delaware's 12 regular season wins are the second-most in program history (UD won 13 regular season games last season).
- This season's win total marks the first time since 1984 and 1985 that UD has had back-to-back winning seasons.
- In UD's semifinal game with Northeastern, the Blue Hens will be looking to avenge a late-season 3-2 overtime loss at home to the Huskies.
- Friday will be 24th all-time meeting between the Blue Hens and Huskies. Northeastern leads the series 17-4-2, but Delaware defeated the Huskies 1-0 in double overtime in the quarterfinals of last season's CAA Tournament.
- After defeating Northeastern in last season's CAA Tournament, Drexel defeated Delaware on penalty kicks in the semifinals. Despite the loss, the Blue Hens still managed to be selected to the NCAA Tournament where they lost to St. John's 2-1 in overtime in the first round.
- Guillermo Delgado was awarded Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year honors Wednesday.
- Delgado, who won the CAA Rookie of the Year award as a freshman, was also named to the All-CAA first team. The midfielder led the Blue Hens and the CAA with 12 goals this season and his 12-goal total ranks him fifth in the NCAA.
- In addition to Delgado, six Blue Hens received All-CAA honors. Tobias Müller scored three goals and tallied one assist in 14 games played this season to earn first-team All-CAA honors.
- Barbero was also named first-team All-CAA registered 47 saves and produced a 1.08 goals-against average.
- Joe Dipre was the only Blue Hen named second team All-CAA. The junior was second on the team with six goals and was tied for the team lead with six assists on the season.
- Ignacio Martín was named to the All-CAA third team. The senior started 17 games and tallied two assists for the Blue Hens.
- Thibault Philippe was named to the All-CAA Rookie team. The freshman tallied one goals and one assist in his first season with UD.
- Ben Sampson was named to the CAA All-Academic team. On the field, the junior started every game for the Blue Hens and registered one goal and one assist. In the classroom, Sampson maintains a 3.98 grade point average with a computer engineering major. Sampson was also was selected to the CoSIDA/Capital One District II All-Academic Men's Soccer Team
- Delaware leads the CAA in shots (249), goals (40), points (110), and assists (30).
- The Blue Hens' proficiency on offense this season gives them the No. 5 scoring offense in the country as UD averages 2.22 goals per game.
