Pirates Ranked No. 11, Highest Ranking in 20 Years

South Orange, N.J. – The Seton Hall men's soccer team is enjoying its highest national ranking in over 20 years as they sit in the No. 11 spot in this week's United Soccer Coaches Poll. The Pirates were also ranked 11 in the Sept. 10, 2001 edition of the poll. As a team, Seton Hall is one of only 13 schools with four or more Top 100 RPI wins on the season.

After moving up seven spots from 22 to 15 last week, the Pirates made a jump of four spots to No. 11 this week. This comes after The Hall was able to complete its first unbeaten home regular season since 2003, with a 1-0 win over UConn on Saturday. The Pirates moved to 5-1-2 in the BIG EAST and second in the East Division trailing only No. 2 Georgetown, who is responsible for the Pirates only blemish on the season. The five conference wins are the highest total for the Pirates since the 2006 campaign that saw The Hall win seven BIG EAST matchups.

The Pirates lead the BIG EAST with six shutouts overall and four clean sheets in-conference. Between the pipes, senior goalkeeper Andreas Nota (Rome, Italy) is on pace to break the Seton Hall single season record for Goals Against Average at 0.597, good enough for sixth in the nation amongst keepers who have played in at least 10 games. Nota has been a three-time selection on the BIG EAST's Weekly Honor Roll. In addition, five different Pirate defenders have been honored as part of the conference's weekly awards: Jake Barrett (Huddersfield, England), Luca Dahn (Kahl, Germany), Eden O'Leary (Tel Aviv, Israel), Paavo Riihijarvi (Oulu, Finland) and Maurice Williams (West Orange, N.J.). Defenders Johannes Pex (Stephansposching, Germany) and Denis Kelmendi (Falkenberg, Sweden) have played every minute of the Pirates' current six game unbeaten streak.

Junior CJ Tibbling (Jarna, Sweden) leads the squad with four goals, good enough for fourth in the conference. Sophomore James Boote (Southampton, England) has picked up four assists in his last five games for five helpers on the season. That total leads the BIG EAST and is good for 11^th in the nation. Senior JP Marin (Briarwood, N.Y.) is not far off Boote's trail with four assists and two goals totaling eight points to his credit.

Seton Hall will look to close out the regular season strong with two more road, conference matches lined up. First, the Pirates will take on Villanova on Saturday. That game will be streamed live by the BIG EAST Digital Network and is set for a 3 p.m. kick. The Hall will end their regular season at Providence. That game will also be streamed by the BEDN with a noon start time.