HAMDEN, Conn. – The Mount St. Mary's men's soccer team clinched its first Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament berth since 1999 on Sunday. Despite falling 3-0 to Quinnipiac in the regular season finale, the Mount qualified for the conference postseason thanks to a 1-all standstill between St. Francis (N.Y.) and Sacred Heart to help maintain a one-point advantage on the fourth and final spot in the upcoming tournament.

"I am really proud of our team and how we played throughout the regular season," said head coach Rob Ryerson. "We are excited for the opportunity to play in the NEC Tournament on Friday."

Mount St. Mary's (9-9-0, 5-4-0 NEC) will be making its fifth appearance in the NEC Tournament and the first since the 1999 season. The Mount also made the NEC Tournament in 1990, 1994, 1996 and 1999, advancing to the championship game in I994 and 1999. The Mountaineers will battle Monmouth in the semifinals on Friday. The game time will be announced on Monday.

In the loss to the Bobcats (10-4-4, 5-2-2 NEC), Chris Davis (Townsville, Australia/Kirwan State) made three saves for Mount St. Mary's.

Graciano Brito recorded two goals to lead Quinnipiac while Durval Pereira also found the twine and Frederick Hall made eight saves in the winning effort.

The Bobcats jumped on the scoreboard early in the first half and never looked back to clinch the No. 3 seed in the NEC Tournament. The Bobcats will face second-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson in the second semifinals on Friday.

Brito, one of the nation's top scorers, took a pass from Johan Karlhagen and found the back of the net at 19:46 to hand Quinnipiac a 1-0 advantage. Pereira helped hand the Bobcats a two-goal margin when he stole the ball from a Mountaineer defender and scored at the 33:04 mark. Brito sealed the victory off a helper from Shane Recklet at 81:11.

Mount St. Mary's outshot Quinnipiac 18-17 and kept Hall busy in between the pipes, but could not push through a tally in the contest. In the second half, Hall turned away shots from Chris Wheeler (Newcastle, Australia/St. Francis Xavier) in the 49th minute, Vinnie Berry (Helensburgh, Scotland/St. Patrick's) in the 54th minute, Eric Detzel (York, Pa./Central York) in the 63 minute before Alex Kem (Germantown, Md./Watkins Mill) gave the Mount its final scoring chances in the closing minutes only to see his two chances stopped by Hall in a span of 46 seconds.

The Mountaineers finished the regular season with a league-best 34 goals and 33 assists for 101 points, the most points in a single-season for the squad since 1997 when the Mount posted 37 goals and 42 assists for 116 points. The team's nine victories are the most since the 2000 season and the five league wins are the most since the 2003 season.