The Marist Men's Soccer team will face St. John's at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Red Foxes made the tournament by defeating #20 Fairfield in the finals of the MAAC Tournament on Sunday. Keith Detelj (Sayville, N.Y.) was the named the Tournament MVP for scoring three of the Red Foxes four goals in the tournament.

Marist is coming off its second straight MAAC Tournament Championship. On November 11, the Red Foxes downed second seeded Loyola in overtime 2-1. Detelj scored both goals to advance Marist to the final. On Fairfield's home field, Marist scored two second half goals, one by Detelj and one by freshman Steve Fantuzzo (Penfield, N.Y.), to upset the top seeded Stags.

St. John's comes into the first round match up ranked #11 nationally with a 9-5-5 record overall. The Red Storm come into the tournament after suffering a 1-0 loss to UCONN in the BIG EAST Tournament semifinals. St. John's is led statistically by Matt Groenwald who has tallied five goals and four assists on the season. Following him are Andre Schmid and Sebastian Alvarado-Ralph who each have four goals and four helpers.

Marist will enter Friday's match at Belson Stadium winners in seven of their last eight matches, including a four game winning streak to close out October. Detelj leads the way for Marist with 11 goals and five assists for 27 points. Anthony Graci (Kings Park, N.Y.) is next with eight markers and four assists for 20 points.

The winner of Friday's match will square off with the #16 overall seed Dartmouth in the second round.