Emory Wins Share of UAA Championship with Upset Win over #8 Carnegie

The Emory University men's soccer team won its seventh University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship in the program's history, and its first since the 2008 season, clinching a share of the conference title with a 1-0 win at sixth-ranked Carnegie Mellon University on Saturday night.

With two of the four games across the University Athletic Association (UAA) already in the books by the Eagles' 5:30 PM start, the eyes of the conference turned towards Pittsburgh, where the results of the Emory-Carnegie game would determine the UAA Champion.  Based on Brandeis' win and Washington University's (Mo.) tie earlier in the day, Emory knew its best-case scenario would be a win over Carnegie that would force a four-way tie for the UAA Title, although the Eagles would not be awarded the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament based on tie breakers.  The Tartans, who had already secured at least a share of the UAA title and the automatic bid with the Wash U. tie, would clinch sole possession of the UAA Championship with either a win or tie.

After a highly-physical game resulted in scoreless play through the first 71 minutes, Emory finally broke through at the 71:53 mark , when sophomore Zachary Rosenberg sent a cross into the six-yard box, that was tapped over the keeper's head by freshman Sebastian Hardington.  It was the first goal of Hardington's career, while Rosenberg earned his first assist of the campaign on the play.

Meanwhile, the Eagles defense would hold on for its second-straight shutout, limiting the Tartans to just seven shots in the game, just two of which were on goal.  Meanwhile, Emory accumulated 14 shots in the game, including seven on goal.

Goalkeeper Abe Hannigan capped off his freshman season with his third shutout of the year, making two saves and improving to 8-3-1 this season.  Sophomore Dylan Price led all players in the game with three shots and two shots on goal.

Emory improved to 10-6-2 on the season with the win, while Carnegie dropped to 12-3-1 for the year with the loss.

With Saturday's results, Emory, Carnegie, Washington and Brandeis all finished tied for first place in the UAA with a 4-2-1 record.  Although all four teams will be recognized as co-champions, only Carnegie, which wins tiebreakers with a 2-1 record against the other three teams tied for first, and a head-to-head win over Brandeis, receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Emory will now hope that the win over the nation's sixth-ranked squad, along with the conference title, has strengthened its resume enough to receive an at large bid to the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Tournament.  Fans can watch the live selection show on Monday, November 5^th at 1:00 PM at http://www.ncaa.com/live/player?vid=2012/562&date=2012/11/05.

Emory Notes
The Eagles' men's soccer team became the second Emory program to win a UAA Championship on Saturday, after the Volleyball team claimed the conference title earlier in the day… The win gave Emory its 11^th-consecutive 10-win season… There were a total of 29 fouls called in the game (15 for Carnegie and 14 for Emory) and three yellow cards issues (two for Carnegie and one for Emory)… Emory has never missed the NCAA Tournament in a year where they won the UAA Championship since the NCAA expanded its tournament format to emphasize conference champions in the late 1990's.