Rio men Missouri-bound again, will face Olivet Nazarene in NAIA tourney opener
Rio Grande Sports Information
RIO GRANDE, Ohio - The University of Rio Grande men's soccer team will begin its national tournament run in the state of Missouri for a second consecutive year.
The RedStorm will square off against Olivet Nazarene University as part of the Columbia Bracket in the opening round of the NAIA National Championship on Thursday, at 8 p.m. EDT, at Muriel Williams Battle High School.
Rio Grande (14-3-2), which was ranked No. 20 in the most recent NAIA coaches' poll, is the No. 3 seed in the four-team bracket, which is being hosted by top-seeded and third-ranked Central Methodist University.
Olivet Nazarene (16-1-3), which is ranked 17th, is the No. 2 seed.
The bracket also includes fourth-seeded Saint Mary's (Kan.) (13-4-3), which will face Central Methodist (15-0-5) on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. EDT.
Thursday's winners will square off in the bracket championship on Saturday at 2 p.m. EST, with the survivor moving on the national tournament final site in Decatur, Ala., Nov. 29-Dec. 5.
Rio Grande punched its ticket to the opening round with a 4-2 win over West Virginia University-Tech - whom it shared a regular season title with - in last Saturday's River States Conference Tournament championship game.
The RedStorm lineup is led by junior Vilius Labutis (Ireland), who was named the league's Player of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, along with a trio of fellow first team All-RSC selections in senior midfielder Charlie Chechlacz (Liecestershire, England), sophomore forward Gabriel Silva (Sao Luis, Brazil) and junior defender Rodrigo Basso (Santiago, Chile).
Labutis finished in a tie for second on the team in points (35), was fourth in goals scored (14) and tied for fourth with seven assists. He has authored a team-best five game-winning scores.
Silva actually leads the team in both goals (17) and points (41), while Chechlacz has four goals and is second on the team with nine assists.
Rio's other top offensive threats include freshmen Dean Bregenzer (Switzerland) and Altan Sayar (Switzerland), both of whom have netted 15 goals; junior forward Osvaldo Pereria (Campo Grande, Brazil), who has 11 goals and a team-high 10 assists; and junior forward Benjamin Cam Orellana (Santiago, Chile), who has eight goals and an equal number of assists.
Olivet Nazarene, which is making its ninth national tourney appearance in program history, qualified for the tournament by winning the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular-season title for the second consecutive season.
The Tigers defeated Cardinal Stritch (Wis.), 2-0, in the title game of the CCAC Tournament last Friday.
First-year head coach Danny Brandt's team is led by junior forward Justin Eisenmann, who scored 13 goals and had 12 assists en route to being named the CCAC Player of the Year. Fellow first-team All-CCAC pick, senior forward Max Jasper, has tallied 10 goals and nine assists.
Sophomore forward Benjamin Strubelt (10 goals, 6 assists) and sophomore midfielder Konstantin Papanikolaou (11 goals, 2 assists) have also totaled 20+ points on the season, while sophomore defender Fabio Hasler (5 goals, 5 assists) and junior defender Nick Kilian (3 goals, 8 assists) joined Eisenmann and Jasper on the first-team all-league list.
Live video of Thursday's match will be available at https://www.heartconferencenetwork.com/cmu.
Live statistics can be found at https://naiastats.prestosports.com/composite.