The New York University men's soccer team completed its 2016 season with a 3-1 loss to Drew University in the opening round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Championship, which was hosted by Rutgers University-Camden on Saturday, November 12, in Camden, NJ.

The Violets (9-8-2) were ranked #3 of the four teams selected to compete in Region 1. Drew (11-5-3) entered the contest as the #2 seed.

The Rangers got off to a quick start by scoring two unanswered goals in the first half. Their first tally came at 26:10 when Anthony McMyne put his shot past NYU keeper Lucas Doucette with assists being credited to Benjamin Audi and Andy Imoh.

The game remained 1-0 until just before halftime when Ian Pavlik doubled Drew's lead with a goal at 41:55. He took a free kick from Alexi Velazquez and deposited it past Doucette from right in front of the net.   

The Rangers increased their lead to 3-0 at 60:39 when Joe Sollad sent a cross to Dylan Hammer who hammered it inside the left post.

"We underperformed today," said NYU head Coach Kim Wyant. "We were in control for the first 20 minutes, but just couldn't find the back of the net. Then we gave up a sloppy goal and then another one later in the half, and we just never recovered." 

NYU managed to avoid the shutout when senior captain Bryan Walsh scored his third goal of the season on an assist from Ricardo Mitrano with only 32 seconds left in the game.

"It was nice for Bryan to score in his final game," Wyant said. "It shows that we continued to play hard until the end."

NOTABLES:

- The teams were fairly even in shots, with Drew accumulating 17 and the Violets totaling 15. The Rangers also had a slight edge (11-8) in shots on goal.

- Petter Aasa and Nic Notaro led the Violets with three shots each.

- Doucette made eight saves in his final collegiate contest.  

- NYU entered Saturday having won four of its previous five games.  

"We are continually striving to get better and to achieve a level of mental toughness that we just haven't reached yet," Wyant concluded. "We have been too inconsistent within games and from game-to-game.

"That being said, we made huge progress this season," Wyant continued. "More wins. More UAA wins. More goals. More assists. We made good overall improvement and I'm proud of the effort we gave throughout the season."