Nov. 10, 2011

• Brandt Podcast | Game Notes | Championship Central | All-Access Video (available at this link)

GAMEDAY INFORMATION
Patriot League Semifinals
[4] Navy (7-7-4) at [1] American (7-11-1)
Friday, November 11 • 11:00 am (ET)
Reeves Field • Washington, D.C.
All-Access Video: www.NavySports.com (subscription)

TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets for the tournament will be available through the American University Box Office and at the Reeves Field Ticket window prior to the contest. Tickets will be $8 for adults and $5 for senior citizens (65+) and children ages 13-18. All students from the participating schools will be admitted free with a school ID. Gates will open 60 minutes prior to the first game of each day of the tournament.

ALL-ACCESS VIDEO STREAMING
The championship will be streamed on Patriot League All-Access. It's a $7.95/month signup or $19.95 for the year. If people are signed up for a streaming package through an institution that is a CBS partner already (such as NavySports.com) then the subscriber actually gets the championship as part of their subscription. Anybody who is already signed up through NavySports.com should have access to the games already.

Fourth-Seeded Mids Hope to Keep Hot Streak Going at Patriot League Tournament
• The Navy men's soccer team (7-7-4) will take on top-seeded American (7-11-1) in Friday's Patriot League Tournament semifinals at 11:00 am at Reeves Field in Washington, D.C. The other semifinal pits second-seeded Colgate and third-seeded Lehigh with the two winners meeting in the finals on Sunday at 1:00 pm.
• The Midshipmen enter as the league's hottest team by going 3-0-1 in their last four games overall after having their backs against the wall after four league games with a 1-2-1 mark. Navy went 2-0-1 in its last three Patriot League games with wins over American and Holy Cross and a tie with Colgate.

Tournament Tidbits
• Navy is a newcomer to the tournament, reaching the league's final four for the first time in 10 years, last coming in the 2001 season. Navy is in the Patriot League Tournament for the eighth time overall (1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2011).
• The Midshipmen have reached the finals three times in 1995, 1996 and 1999, falling in all three matches. The Midshipmen have never won the Patriot League Tournament.
• Navy owns a 3-5-2 record in its seven previous tournament appearances. Its last win in the tournament came during the 1999 event, when the second-seeded Midshipmen knocked off third-seeded Colgate, 3-1, in Worcester, Mass., behind two goals from Brye Gerhardt.
• Navy has never met American or Lehigh in the Patriot League Tournament, but is 2-0-1 against Colgate. The Midshipmen defeated the Raiders in the semifinals in 1996 and again in 1999. The two teams tied in 1997, but the top-seeded Raiders advanced to the finals via penalty kicks.

Fit To Be Tied
• Navy has had four ties this season, one year after having four ties in 2010. The eight ties in the last two seasons are the most in back-to-back seasons since the 1988 and 1989 seasons, when the Mids combined for a 14-8-9 record.
• The four ties (also done last year) are the most in Dave Brandt's 15 years as a collegiate head coach.

Mids Turn it Around Late In The Year
• Just four games ago, it had appeared Navy was heading for a late-season slide after a three-match losing streak to Bucknell, Virginia and Lehigh in which the Midshipmen were outscored, 7-2. The Lehigh loss left Navy with a 4-7-3 mark and a 1-2-1 record in the Patriot League with match-ups against the top two teams (American and Colgate) left on the schedule.
• However, the Mids righted the ship with a 2-1 win over American on Oct. 22 and ended the season with a 2-0-1 mark in their last three Patriot League games.
• It's a far cry of what happened in October and November in the previous five years. From 2006-10, Navy went just 8-28-8 (.273) in the months of October and November. This year, the Mids are 4-3-1 (.563) during the months of October and November.

Navy Defense Also Steps It Up
• Coming into the year, many thought the strength of the Navy soccer team would be the defense as Brandt returned three defensive starters and the starting goalkeeper from a team that allowed just 13 goals all of last season.
• After stumbling out of the gates, Navy's defensive group appears to have rediscovered itself and is playing its best defense of the season as it enters the league tournament.
• Navy allowed 17 goals in the season's first eight games (2.13 per game) with no shutouts, jumping out to a 3-3-2 record. In the last 10 games of the season, Navy has allowed 11 goals (1.10 per game) with four shutouts, recording a 4-4-2 mark in those games.
• Over the last four games, a 3-0-1 stretch, Navy has allowed just two goals in 384 minutes, a GAA of 0.47, with shutouts against Howard and Colgate.

Navy In The Patriot League Statistics
• As a team, Navy ranks first in the Patriot League in shots per game (15.7), points per game (3.72) and goals per game (1.39) and is second in corner kicks per game (5.61) despite having just one player (David Jackson) in the top 10 in points.
• Navy is sixth in goals allowed (28), sixth in goals against average (1.50) and sixth in shutouts (4), despite being first in saves per game (4.94).

Quick Hits
• A Navy win on Friday would give the Midshipmen back-to-back .500 seasons for the first time since the 2000 and 2001 seasons.
• A win over American would give Dave Brandt a .500 record at Navy at 23-23-8. He hasn't been .500 in his Navy coaching career since Oct. 19, 2010, when he was 14-14-3.
• David Jackson is the lone Navy player ranked in the Patriot League's top 10 in points, ranking fifth in the league with 14 points. His six goals and 14 points are the most for a Navy player since McKenzie Plank scored 19 points and eight goals during the 2006 season.
• Freshman Joseph Greenspan has been credited with 59 shots this season, the most in the Patriot League (three players tied with 46) and the most for a Navy player since individual shot attempts became a statistic in 1984.
• Navy freshmen and sophomores have accounted for 44 points (16 g, 12 a). Navy upperclassmen have 23 points (9 g, 5 a).
• Navy has had 12 different players score goals and another five players have recorded assists to give Dave Brandt 17 players that have found their way into the scoring column.
• Navy is 7-9-5 during the Patriot League era under Coach Brandt (2009-present). In the seven previous years before Brandt took over from 2002-08, the team went 9-34-6. In the three years prior to Brandt (2006-08), the team was 1-18-2 in Patriot League play.
• Navy ranks 16th on the all-time NCAA victories list with 625, just one behind Akron (626).
• Navy is 6-3-0 this year in one-goal games, but just 1-4-0 in games decided by two or more goals.
• The Mids are 6-2-1 this year when scoring at least two goals in a game and are 18-2-1 in the Brandt era when that occurs.
• Navy is 7-1-3 when holding opponents to zero or one goal.
• Navy is 16-2-3 in the Dave Brandt era when scoring first.

Mids Excel in Classroom
• Navy men's soccer players Sam Miller and Eric Wootten have both been named to the Capital One Academic All-District II first team, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced last weekend.
• It also marks the second straight year that Navy had two players named to the academic first team as Miller and Alex Foskett were honored last year. Both of them would go on to earn Academic All-America honors.
• Miller was named to the first team for the second straight year and to the all-district team for the third time in his career (second team as a sophomore in 2009), owning a 3.95 cumulative GPA in mechanical engineering.
• Wootten, a junior midfielder from Woodbridge, Va., was also named to the first team with a 3.81 GPA in honors systems engineering.

Head Coach Dave Brandt
• Dave Brandt currently ranks fifth on the all-time NCAA winning percentage list and is second on the active list behind Trinity's (Texas) Paul McGinlay. Brandt owns a 268-48-22 (.825) mark.
• He has led Navy into the Patriot League Tournament for the first time since 2001.
• Brandt came to Navy from Messiah College, where he compiled a remarkable 246-25-14 (.888) record in 12 seasons, winning six NCAA Division III National Championships, including the 2008 crown.
• His 2005 squad posted a 24-0-0 record; one of just six undefeated and untied seasons in all divisions since 1972.
• He is the one of two men's soccer coaches in the country at any level to have won six national titles.
• Brandt has won four National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Coach of the Year awards (2000, 2002, 2004 and 2008) and was the fastest coach in NCAA men's soccer history to reach the 200-win mark.

# GO NAVY #/i>