Columbia Men's Soccer Makes History, Will play in AAC Tournament

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The Columbia College men's soccer team fell 2-0 on Senior Day to Bryan College during Homecoming on Saturday afternoon. However, all was not lost as the Koalas still clinched a spot in next weekend's AAC Tournament. They are the first-ever men's team sport to qualify for a conference tournament in Columbia College history.

The Koalas will now enter the conference tournament as the #6 seed with a 4-4-4 AAC record, equaling 16 points. They will travel to north Georgia to battle #3 seed Truett McConnell (7-2-3, 24 pts.) on Friday, Oct. 31 at a time TBA.

Unfortunately, Columbia lost to Bryan on Saturday as BC made two first half goals stand up for the full 90 minutes. The Lions got on the board first at the 21-minute mark before adding their second goal in the 31st minute on two breakaways that caught Koala senior goalkeeper Mathias Gravesen coming out of net to attempt to make a save.

Columbia thought they had scored their first goal late in the opening half as a streaking Natneal Micheal crossed a nice pass to Jack Frost who sent it to the corner spot of the net. However, a very late whistle for offsides overturned the goal on the field breaking the Koalas' hearts right before intermission. CC outshot Bryan 9-5 in the first half as well.

In the second half, Columbia controlled the tempo outshooting the Lions 8-2 and 17-7 overall, but time after time just could not find the netting in the defeat. CC also outnumbered BC's corner kicks by a 9-1 margin while the teams combined for 20 fouls.

Gravesen made one save on three shots on goal during his 45 minutes of first half play while fellow senior keeper Nathan Huff came on in the second half and made one save on one shot on goal. Senior defender Gabriel Guadagno led the Koalas with five shots and two on goal while Michael attempted three shots as well.

Columbia falls to 6-6-4 overall while Bryan improved to 2-11-3.