St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Ready for Final Four
12/9/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Dec. 9, 2003
JAMAICA, N.Y. -- St. John's Head Men's Soccer Coach Dave Masur has told his players throughout the postseason that the Road to the Final Four would be paved with many challenges.
That was proved true through a trio of games, as the Red Storm topped Connecticut in penalty kicks on November 26, UC-Santa Barbara in overtime on November 30, and fought back from a two-goal deficit while playing a man-down on Sunday against Creighton before winning 3-2.
The final win propelled St. John's to this weekend's NCAA College Cup, where the sixth-seeded Red Storm will face No. 2 seed Maryland on Friday night. The game, which will kick off at 5 p.m., will be shown live on ESPN 2 from Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. Rob Stone will provide the play-by-play, with John Harkes serving as the color analyst.
Perennial national power Indiana, seeded No. 8 with a 15-3-5 record, will face unseeded Santa Clara in the second of two semifinals. The winners will advance to the National Championship game, which will be played on Sunday at 2 p.m.
This will be St. John's third appearance in the Final Four since 1996, when the Red Storm won the NCAA National Championship. The Red Storm have reached the Final Four in two of the last three years. Senior Simone Salinno (Lucera, Italy), who scored the game-winning goal in the 3-2 win over Creighton, leads the team with 14 goals and three assists for 31 points.
St. John's will face Maryland (20-2-3), who reached the NCAA College Cup for the second-straight year with a 4-2 win over St. Louis on Sunday. This is their third appearance in the Final Four in the last six years.
The Terps won their first regular-season Atlantic Coast Conference title since 1971, but were edged in the ACC tournament by the Cavaliers on penalty kicks. Sumed Ibrahim, a semifinalist for the Hermann Trophy, Scott Buete and Seth Stammler were All-ACC first-team selections. Thirteen different players have tallied goals for the Terps, while 15 different players have registered assists.