After losing 2-1 at home to Carnegie Mellon University last week, the No. 17 nationally-ranked men's soccer team faced a seemingly impossible battle to win the University Athletic Association. The squad needed several upsets within the conference in addition to a UAA victory over New York University.

However, all things seemed to fit into place on Saturday after the Judges defeated NYU 1-0 to finish the regular season 16-2-1 and 4-2-1 in the UAA, allowing them to share the title in a four-way tie for the first time in UAA history.

In the first half, the Judges were outplayed by NYU, as they struggled to find a rhythm. NYU outshot Brandeis 6-1, and two of the shots caused netminder Blake Minchoff '13 to make diving saves to keep the game scoreless. NYU senior goalie Jonas Poster faced his only shot from midfielder Foti Andreo '15.

"We were getting our butts kicked in the first half," said Minchoff. "But once we settled down and started playing our game, we were able to get a bit of control in the game."

The Judges came out in the second half showing off the offensive prowess that they were capable of. Within the first 20 minutes of the second half, they got nine shots off on net. Three of these shots occurred within the 63rd minute, two of which caused Poster to make saves.

The tenth chance of the half came in the 67th minute when Brandeis was awarded a corner kick. Forward Lee Russo '13 took an in-swinging kick, which found the head of fellow forward Sam Ocel '13, who nodded it into the back of the net to put the Judges up 1-0.

The goal was Ocel's tenth of the season, which, along with Russo's twelve goals, meant that the squad had two players with more than ten goals in a season for the first time since 1994. This exemplified the dynamic synergy between the two that have made the Brandeis offense such a dominant force.

From there, the Judges defense shut down NYU's offense for the remainder of the half, only allowing three shots for the rest of the game. Minchoff made the last save of the game in the 75th minute on a shot from NYU junior forward Kyle Green.

The win gave the Judges a 16-win season; a feat only accomplished three other times, the last of which was the 1985 season.

The Judges' victory put them in a tie with Carnegie for first place-however, there were still two UAA games left to be played in the day, which could easily knock the Judges out of first-place.

At 3:30 p.m., Washington University in St. Louis faced off against the University of Chicago. WashU needed a win to take the lead of the UAA, as they were only one point behind the Judges in the standings. However, neither team could score, resulting in a 0-0 draw. This result put WashU in a three-way tie with the Judges and Carnegie.

At 5:30 p.m., the deciding match between Carnegie and Emory University was played. Emory needed a win in order to tie for first place, while Carnegie needed only a draw to walk away with the UAA title outright. Emory freshman forward Sebastian Hardington scored his first goal of the season in the 68th minute of the game whose result meant that there was a four-way tie for the UAA Championship.
Despite tying with three other teams, the significance of winning the UAA was not lost on Minchoff.

"The seniors [Minchoff, Ocel, Russo and defender Joe Eisenbies '13] have come a long way since our freshman year, when we only won six games," he said. "And for [Coven] to win the UAA at this stage of his career, I think he's really thrilled."

Because of the tie, the automatic bid for the NCAA Division III Tournament was awarded to the team with the best head-to-head record with the other first-place teams. The Judges and Carnegie tied this statistic, each 2-1 against the other teams. The second tiebreaker was decided by whoever had the head-to-head victory, which Carnegie won the week before, meaning that that the Tartans received the bid.

However, Brandeis was one of five schools in New England-No. 9 Williams College, Babson College, Wesleyan University and Tufts University being the others-to receive an at-large bid to the tournament.

As a result, the Judges will host Baruch College in a first round game on Saturday at 5 p.m. Should they win that game, they will advance to the second-round match, which will be held on Sunday at Gordon Field.