ALBANY, N.Y. – The University at Albany men's soccer program closes out the 2022 regular season at home with a showdown against #20 Vermont.
 
Game Info
Tuesday, November 1 vs. #20 Vermont (7:00 pm)
Live Stats | ESPN+ | Game Notes
 
Leading the Pack

• UAlbany is at home this season; Vermont is 5-1-0 on the road
• Vermont ranks second in the America East in scoring offense; UAlbany ranks seventh
• Vermont leads the America East in scoring defense; UAlbany ranks fifth
• Two Catamounts, Alex Nagy and Max Murray, rank in the top-four in the America East with seven goals scored
• Vermont's Nathan Silveira leads the America East in goals-against average and save percentage
• Shafique Wilson ranks third in the America East in saves per game
• UAlbany won seven-straight against Vermont from 2015-19, outscoring the Catamounts 17-2

Scouting Vermont
After seeing their 11-game winning streak end at the hands of UMBC on the road, the Catamounts fell from their season-high #10 in the United Soccer Coaches' poll to #20.  During that winning streak, the Catamounts recorded eight shutouts, including seven-straight, and went a total of 792:44 of game time.  Vermont rebounded against #21 New Hampshire, preseason #9, and will likely rise in the rankings when the new poll is released just hours before Tuesday's matchup with UAlbany.  Defensively, the Catamounts have allowed just nine goals in 16 games this season, while they have two players who have scored seven goals on offense.  UAlbany is 13-12-3 against Vermont in the program's Division I era.  The Great Danes are 9-3 in the last 12 against the Catamounts but have lost each of the last two.
 
Last Time vs. Vermont
October 23, 2021 | UAlbany visiting Vermont last weekend in a showdown for second place in the America East standings.  The Catamounts scored twice in the first 12 minutes and their defense held to keep UAlbany scoreless, and ultimately claimed the 2-0 victory to gain the inside track to a first-round bye in the America East Tournament.  The Catamounts held UAlbany to just five shots for the game, and held UAlbany without a corner kick.  After halftime, neither team attempted a shot on goal.
 
Last Time Out
UAlbany visited UMass Lowell to close their 2022 regular-season road slate.  The game ended in a 0-0 draw, keeping winless-in-conference UMass Lowell's postseason chances alive.  UAlbany goalkeeper Shafique Wilson stopped four shots and recorded his fifth clean sheet of the season, matching the performance of his River Hawk counterpart.  UMass Lowell pressed the advantage in the first half, outshooting UAlbany 8-3, but UAlbany tipped the scales following the break, narrowly outshooting the River Hawks 11-9 in the second.
 
Around the America East
Five of the six spots in the 2022 America East Tournament have been clinched.  #20 Vermont leads the conference standings after defeating #21 New Hampshire 2-1, handing the Wildcats their first regular-season conference defeat since the 2019 season.  The Catamounts and Wildcats each have 15 points with one game remaining, with the Catamounts holding the head-to-head tiebreaker.  UMBC, after upsetting Vermont last week, has jumped into third place in the standings, with UAlbany landing fourth, one point behind the Retrievers.  Binghamton is the fifth team to have clinched their postseason spot, well clear of the bottom three.  The final spot will go to UMass Lowell, NJIT, or Bryant, the three of which are separated by just two points in the standings.
 
Tuesday's America East Games

• UMass Lowell at #21 New Hampshire, 6:00 pm
• Bryant at NJIT, 6:00 pm
• UMBC at Binghamton, 7:00 pm
• #20 Vermont at UAlbany, 7:00 pm

Common Opponents

• Dartmouth
  • UAlbany: 9/17 vs. Dartmouth, T, 1-1
  • #10 Vermont: 10/18 vs Dartmouth, W, 3-0
• UMBC
  • UAlbany: 9/24 at UMBC, W, 1-0
  • #10 Vermont: 10/22 at UMBC, L, 1-2
• Bryant
  • UAlbany: 10/1 vs. Bryant, W, 3-0
  • #15 Vermont: 10/8 vs. Bryant, W, 4-0
• Binghamton
  • UAlbany: 10/8 at Binghamton, T, 0-0
  • #22 Vermont: 9/24 vs. Binghamton, W, 2-0
• New Hampshire
  • UAlbany: 10/14 vs. RV New Hampshire, L, 0-4
  • #20 Vermont: 10/28 vs. #21 New Hampshire, W, 2-1
• NJIT
  • UAlbany: 10/22 at NJIT, W, 1-0
  • #12 Vermont: 10/15 vs. NJIT, W, 4-0
• UMass Lowell
  • UAlbany: 10/28 at UMass Lowell, T, 0-0
  • #16 Vermont: 10/1 at UMass Lowell, W, 4-0

Defensive Player of the Week II
Following his fifth clean sheet of the season, UAlbany goalkeeper Shafique Wilson earned America East Co-Defensive Player of the Week honors with his counterpart from UMass Lowell, Jacob Heihsel.  In the Great Danes' match against the River Hawks, both goalkeepers recorded four saves and allowed zero goals.  Wilson is the second UAlbany goalkeeper to be named America East Defensive Player of the Week this season, following Daniel Shannon and his shutout against Penn.
 
Rookie of the Week II
For the second time this season, UAlbany freshman forward Jackson Finn earned America East Rookie of the Week honors.  Finn recorded a secondary assist on UAlbany's game-winning goal in the 89th minute at NJIT, which clinched the game for the Great Danes as well as a spot in the 2022 America East Tournament.
 
Clinched
With the Great Danes' victory over NJIT, the team has earned its spot in the six-team 2022 America East Tournament.  By the time of the Great Danes' clinching, three other teams, Vermont, New Hampshire, and UMBC, also secured their spots.  UAlbany will make its 15th appearance in the America East Tournament, and 11th in the last 12 seasons.
 
Seniors
UAlbany honored the seven members of its 2022 senior class, Domenic Baumann, Vinicius Giannaccini, Giuliano Lucca, Pantelis Panteli, Sam Philip, Neophytos Scottis, and Julian Terris, ahead of the team's final non-conference game of the regular season, Colgate.  Since Philip, the class' longest-tenured player, arrived on campus in 2018, the class has gone 33-36-6 overall with a 15-15-2 against America East opponents.
 
Shutout
For three-straight games, and seven total halves, the men's soccer team did not concede a goal.  The Great Danes went 2-0-1 against UMBC, Bryant, and Binghamton, outscoring the three opponents 4-0.  In total, dating to the team's last goal conceded in the 86th minute at Rhode Island on September 20, until their next goal conceded, a penalty kick in the 66th minute against Army West Point on October 11, the Great Danes' shutout streak lasted 340 game minutes.
 
Rookie of the Week
Jackson Finn scored the game-winner against the America East's top-scoring team, UMBC, on the road in the team's conference opener, and earned his first career weekly award.  The Retrievers had scored eight more goals than any other America East squad, but the Great Danes held UMBC scoreless over their 90-minute match.  Finn broke the scoreless tie late in the game, collecting a rebound against an open net after teammates Saad Faiz and Domenic Baumann took back-to-back shots to draw UMBC goalkeeper Quantrell Jones out of position.
 
Hall of Fame Semifinalist
The most prolific scorer in UAlbany men's soccer history, Lee Tschantret, was named a semifinalist to the National Soccer Hall of Fame's 2023 Veteran Ballot.  Tschantret played at UAlbany from 1987-90, scoring a program-record that still stands today 51 goals.  He earned All-America honors in 1988 and 1989, and after his collegiate season enjoyed a 20-year professional career.
 
Associate
Rich Nassif was promoted to Associate Head Coach in 2022, his fifth season on the sidelines at UAlbany.  Nassif joined UAlbany in 2018 following his second stint on the coaching staff at his alma mater, Northwestern University.  Since joining the Great Danes' sidelines, the team has averaged nine wins per full season and qualified for two America East tournaments.  Some of the Great Danes biggest wins with Nassif are Vermont in 2018 and 2019, #14 New Hampshire in 2019, Villanova in 2021, and Penn this season.
 
U.S. Open Cup
Former UAlbany goalkeeper Danny Vitiello and his Sacramento Republic FC team advanced to the championship game of the U.S. Open Cup against Orlando City SC of the MLS.  Sacramento was the first team from outside the MLS to reach the title game since Charleston Battery played against D.C. United in 2008.  Vitiello and Sacramento defeated three MLS teams en route to the final, the San Jose Earthquakes, the L.A. Galaxy, and Sporting Kansas City.  In the latter game, the semifinal, Vitiello recorded the decisive save in the penalty kick shootout to advance Sacramento to the final.  Sacramento's magic run ended against Orlando City, falling 3-0.
 
From the Field
When Saad Faiz scored his first goal of the season, in the 24th minute of the Great Danes' sixth game of the year, at Rutgers, it was the team's first goal scored from the field of the 2022 season.  All three of the Great Danes' previous goals were scored on penalty kicks.  Faiz's goal ended a drought of just over 520 minutes of game time since their previous goal from the field, in the 44th minute of the 2021 America East quarterfinal against NJIT.
 
Defensive Player of the Week
Daniel Shannon recorded his first career shutout and victory as UAlbany's goalkeeper in the Great Danes' fifth game of the year when they hosted the Penn Quakers.  Shannon faced a total of 21 shots and made four saves to keep the Quakers off the board and hold the 1-0 lead to victory.  Shannon is UAlbany's first defensive player of the week since former teammate Carlos Tofern was named on September 7, 2021.
 
Three-for-Three
Through five games, UAlbany scored three goals on the 2022 season.  Each goal came via penalty kick, first in the season opener against Boston University and second at Marist at the end of a three-game road swing.  Pantelis Panteli took each penalty kick for the Great Danes, making Panteli accountable for all UAlbany scoring through the early part of the season.  In the fifth game of the season, Domenic Baumann stepped in for Panteli on the Great Danes' PK against Penn and successfully converted the attempt, making UAlbany 3-3 on PKs on the season season.  Since then, the team added another PK, and are a perfect 4-4.
 
International Flavor
Continuing a tradition within the UAlbany men's soccer program under head coach Trevor Gorman, the 2022 Great Danes feature a sizeable international roster.  Thirteen countries are represented among UAlbany's ranks this season: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United States.
 
New Faces
UAlbany welcomes 16 new players to the roster for the 2022 season, replacing 15 departures and bringing the team roster to a total of 30.  Though the Great Danes return second-leading scorer Andrew Weiner from last year, the members of the new class will fill in for the production left behind by the departures of the first, third, and fourth-leading scorers, a total of six goals and 11 assists.
 
Picked Fourth
After finishing the 2021 regular season third in the America East standings, the Great Danes were picked to finish fourth in the league's 2022 preseason coaches' poll.  Behind unanimous favorite New Hampshire, picked to win the league for the fourth-straight season, the distribution tightened up.  Defending tournament champion Vermont was picked second just two points ahead of third-pick UMBC, and five points ahead of UAlbany.  NJIT was picked fifth, ahead of Binghamton and UMass Lowell in a tie for sixth, with conference newcomer Bryant picked eighth.
 
Game Over
Adopted starting this season, regular-season matches will no longer go into extra time when tied at the conclusion of regulation.  The regular-seasons games will conclude after 90 minutes of play.  Overtime and shootouts will return starting in the postseason.
 
Next: The America East Tournament begins November 5 with the quarterfinal round.