The No. 20 George Mason men's soccer team suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday, falling 3-0 to Atlantic 10 opponent VCU in the team's first conference match of the season.

The Patriots dip to 7-1-2, 0-1 in the A-10 while VCU moves up to 4-6-1, 1-0 in conference. The loss also ends a streak of 11 consecutive games without losing to an Atlantic 10 opponent.

"Giving up a very early goal set the table for an uphill climb," commented head coach Greg Andrulis. 

"Although we had moments and seemed to turn momentum after the second goal again it wasn't enough as VCU was very efficient with there chances. We were off on the night and VCU was good enough to punish our errors."

The Rams wasted no time giving Mason its first deficit of the season, scoring their first goal at the 2:16 mark of the first half. Kharlton Belmar scored his third goal of the season unassisted to put VCU up 1-0 on the second shot of the game, first for the Rams.

Belmar was listed on the score sheet for a second time when he tallied his second goal of the match in the 16th minute to give VCU a 2-0 advantage and a score that would remain at the end of the first half.

The Rams used a header in the 76th minute to clinch its second win over a top-20 opponent this season.

Next up for the Patriots is when they host 19th ranked UVA on Tuesday, October 7 at 7 p.m.