Sept. 21, 2010

College Park, Md. - The George Mason men's soccer team traveled to College Park to face the Maryland Terrapins for the first time since beating them last year when they were ranked No. 2 in the country. The Patriots handed the then-defending national champions their first loss of the year last season beating Maryland 2-0. On Tuesday night, the Terps returned the favor, downing Mason by the same score. This year, Maryland entered the contest ranked fifth in the nation.

The game was scoreless until the 54th minute when Matt Kassel took a free kick from 35 yards out on the left wing and sent it to the far post where London Woodberry missed the header but got his back on the ball, redirecting it in to the near post to make it 1-0. Less than 10 minutes later, in the 63rd minute, Kassel sent another free kick from the left wing to the far post, this time from 30 yards out, and this time the ball went in off a Mason defender to make it 2-0.

"Ludwig Field is s tough place to come into and get a result," said Mason head coach Greg Andrulis. "On a night when we needed to at our best we weren't. We lost to a good team that is well coached. They kept us on our heels and did a great job defensively. Now it's time to look forward to the conference schedule."

Mason couldn't find a rhythm offensively for most of the night as the Patriots were held to 7-1 shots in the first half while Maryland had a 5-1 edge in corner kicks. For the match Maryland had a 17-3 edge in shots and a 7-1 edge in shots on goal. They had a 7-2 advantage in corners. Mason was called for 13 fouls while Maryland was whistled for just five.

The Patriots will return to action on Saturday when they travel to Norfolk to open CAA play by facing Old Dominion. The Monarchs opened CAA play on Tuesday night with a 1-0 win over William & Mary.