SMC Men's Soccer Falls Short in Bid For Nationals

ALBANY , GA-- The No. 7 SMC Pioneers fought to overcome an early lead from No. 6 Darton College in the National Junior College Athletic Association's Southeast District title game Saturday night, but fell 3-0 in a battle to head back to the national tournament for the first time in 16 years.

Darton College posted each of its three points by the 30-minute mark and left the Pioneers struggling to come together on an attack.

"We didn't play well together as a team tonight. We were distracted. Traveling seven hours yesterday afternoon and then waiting around until 6 pm in the evening today took its toll on us," says SMC head coach Dan Kenneally.

"We played the two halves really flat – we thought we had a goal at one point, but we didn't.. We weren't able to get our game out. Honestly, this was probably the worst we played all year," he added.

The Pioneers  themselves admit the game didn't go as they had hoped, but they fought hard this season and bonded throughout.

"It was a tough loss, but we fought till the end. We just didn't play our game and the three goals in the first half killed us. But I'm happy overall because we got far, won the region championship, and became a close family," says sophomore Diego Ampuero Gac.

Sophomore Sebastian Restrepo adds, "We kept fighting throughout the game, but we couldn't make any opportunities to score. We played a great team today and they knew what we were capable of.  We came far, but not as far as we wanted to go."

Kenneally says that he is also extremely proud of the 2010 Pioneers and what they have accomplished.

The Pioneers finished the season 15-3-1 with Saturday's game. They returned to districts for the first time since the mid-1990s as the Region X champions.

The last time the Pioneers went to the NJCAA Division I National Tournament was in 1994 when SMC won the national title.

Seven Pioneers received recognition as 2010 District X All-Tournament team members and freshman Sebastian Velasquez was named District X Player of the Year.

"You can't argue with the fact that we were No. 7 in the country. We had a great year," Kenneally, who was named Region X Coach of the Year, says.

He adds that he will miss the sophomores  who will graduate from the team this year.

"They're a special group of guys. That just makes it that much harder to have a loss like this. But they're all going to go on to great things. I am tremendously proud of everyone on this team though for what they've accomplished this year," he says.

Spartanburg Methodist College has 14 intercollegiate teams that compete in Region X of the National Junior College Athletic Association, which includes colleges in the Carolinas, Virginia and West Virginia.

The College is in its 100th academic year of providing quality education to students in a Christian environment. More than 90 percent of SMC graduates continue their education at other institutions of higher learning.

For more information, contact athletic director Mark Perdue at perduem@smcsc.edu or (864) 587-4237.