LOUDONVILLE, NY – Siena Men's Soccer is set to take the field at home for the final time during the 2022 regular season on Wednesday, and will look to improve its standing towards MAAC postseason play in the process. The Saints (7-5-4, 3-2-3) will welcome Rider (2-8-4, 1-3-3) to Hickey Field on Wednesday, October 26, with action beginning at 2 PM.
Saturday's match will be aired live on ESPN+, with the "Voice of the Saints Emmanuel Berbari handling play-by-play duties and Patrick Meany providing color commentary. Live stats will be available on SienaSaints.com, while live up-to-the-minute updates will be available by following @SienaSoccer on Twitter.
The Saints will look to improve to 4-2-2 at home this season and build off a Senior Day split with one of the league's top competitors last Saturday, which improved them to an impressive 11-4-5 at home under third year head coach Graciano Brito. Siena played Iona – who remains as the league's lone unbeaten squad in conference play – to a scoreless draw, with the team successfully defending against 21 shots and graduate student goalkeeper Greg Monroe collecting five saves. The result ended a six-match losing six for the Saints against the Gaels, and kept them in the hunt for a first-round bye in a tight race with three MAAC play dates remaining.
Siena – who will have a bye on Saturday and will conclude regular season action at Fairfield next Wednesday, currently holds a tiebreaker over the Stags for fourth place in the league, with both teams owning 12 conference points. Manhattan sits at the top of the league standings with 17 points, while Quinnipiac (1`4) and Iona (13) follow behind, and Niagara (11) rounded out the top-six. The top six teams in the league will advance to the 2022 MAAC Championships, with the Quarterfinal round featuring seeds 3-6 on Sunday, November 6, the Semifinals set for Thursday, November 10, and the Championship Match scheduled for Sunday, November 13.
The Saints will look to avenge a MAAC Quarterfinal loss from last season against the Broncs, who ended Siena's season with a 1-0 decision at Hickey Field on November 7, 2021. Last year marked the first time that Siena secured a home playoff match since 2016, with the team looking to mark the first time since the 2014-16 seasons and only the third time since joining the MAAC in 1989 that the program has gone to postseason play in three consecutive years.
The team's success has been guided by the staunch play of its defense, led by Monroe. The Clifton Park, New York native now owns five program records, having set the program marks for goalkeeper saves, wins, minutes played, shutouts, and matches played. Additionally, Monroe leads all active NCAA Division I keepers in saves (354) and ranks second in minutes (7,123.77). He also ranks eighth nationally in minutes played, ninth in total saves (68), 18th in shutouts (6), and 23rd in save percentage (.810). Monroe's shutout total is currently tied for the second most by a keeper in program history.
Monroe has been joined this season by sophomore Thomas Storodegard in hitting a program milestone, with the Baerums Verk, Norway native netting his fifth game-winning goal of the season in the win over Mount St. Mary's on October 15 to set the single-season program record and put him tied for second nationally in the stat. Storodegard also ranks tied for second in the MAAC in total goals with seven, which is good for 41th nationally and 52nd in the nation in goals per-game (0.50).
Both players have taken home MAAC weekly awards thus far on the season, with Monroe winning MAAC Defensive Player of the Week honors on October 10, September 19, and August 29, and Storodegard garnering MAAC Offensive Player of the Week accolades on October 10.
Picked to finish fifth in the 2022 MAAC Preseason Coaches Poll, the Green and Gold played to a 9-7-3 overall mark and a 5-3-2 conference record in 2021, securing the number four seed in the MAAC and ultimately falling in the MAAC quarterfinals. Under the direction of Brito for the third year, Siena returns 24 letterwinners from last season while adding seven newcomers.
Sophomore Jacob Sandun Arachchige-Jensen highlighted the roster by becoming the fourth player in program history to earn MAAC Rookie of the Year honors, while becoming the first Siena freshman to take a home First Team All-MAAC nod and the only rookie in the league to do so last year. Classmate Henrik Winkelmann earned Second Team All-MAAC honors, while the pair joined defender Erik Reis, midfielder Zach Gardner, Storodegard, and defender Jesper Schone Vogtengen in making the MAAC All-Rookie Team. Arachchige-Jensen, Reis, and Winkelmann all started the year by being selected to the 2022 Preseason All-MAAC Team.
The 21st meeting in the series since 1997, Rider holds a 13-21-5 series advantage and has won four of the last five meetings, including last year's MAAC Quarterfinal contest. Each of the last five decisions have all come in shutout fashion, with Siena's last series victory coming in the form of a 2-0 defeat at Rider on October 30, 2021.
Let by tenth-year head coach Charlie Inverso, Rider has won the MAAC Championship three times over the last decade, and advanced to the 2021 MAAC Championship match, where it ultimately fell in a penalty shootout to MAAC Champion Marist. With just a pair of wins so far this season, the Broncs have secured conference ties in two of their last three games, including last Saturday against the Red Foxes and October 15 at Niagara. Picked to finish second in the MAAC Preseason Coaches Poll, Rider's offense features Adel Al-Masude with seven total points and goalkeeper Guillaume Veinante with 57 saves and a 2.29 goals-against-average.
