September 17, 2008

RAMS RENEW INTER-CITY RIVALRY WITH SPIDERS
Rams, Spiders take to the pitch for the 33rd time
Weekly Notes
Live Stats
Live Broadcast

RICHMOND, Va. – A historic rivalry will be renewed this evening as the Virginia Commonwealth University men’s soccer team makes the short trip across town to do battle with the Spiders of the University of Richmond in a 7 p.m. contest at First Market Stadium.

The meeting will be 33rd all-time with Richmond holding a slight 16-14-2 edge in the series, which started in 1978. Last season was the first time in the history of the men’s soccer program that the two teams did not face off.

Senior goalkeeper Andrew Dyskstra (Woodbridge, Va.) is coming off a week in which he earned CAA Co-Player of the Week honors and will look to lead the Rams to a victory over Richmond for the first time in his career.

The Black and Gold have taken back-to-back 1-0 losses to its cross-town rivals, but are looking to get back in the win column. Prior to those two losses (2005, 2006), Richmond had not defeated VCU since the 1996 campaign.

Sophomore Jorit Loehr (Bremen, Germany) has been the offensive star netting three goals on the season, two of which were game-winners for the Rams. Setting his teammates up has been the fast-footed Owusu Sekyere (Suame-Kumasi, Ghana) (right), who has tallied a team-leading four assists on the year.

VCU is coming off one of its biggest win in recent history as they thrilled a jam-packed Sports Backers Stadium with a 3-1 defeat of perennial national power the University of Virginia last Saturday evening.

The victory propelled the Rams back into the regional spotlight as they are currently ranked fifth in the latest NSCAA/adidas South Atlantic poll.

VCU and the Spiders will take to the pitch at 7 p.m. this evening and the game can be heard live on vcuathletics.com.