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The VCU Rams men's soccer team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of Virginia Commonwealth University, an NCAA Division I member school located in the state's capital of Richmond. The team is a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference. Since their foundation, the team has won three conference championships, all of which came in the Colonial Athletic Association, and four regular season titles. The Rams have qualified for seven NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championships, most recently coming in 2012. Most of the team's success has come within the last 15 seasons, as they first reached the NCAA Tournament in 1997. The program's best performance in the tournament came in 2004, when the Rams reached the quarterfinals of the tournament, knocking off the top seed, Wake Forest, in the process. The Rams are presently coached by David Giffard, who was a former assistant coach under Caleb Porter for the Akron Zips. == History == Beginning in 1978, Virginia Commonwealth University fielded a men's varsity soccer program, that competed independently.〔 Ben Satterfield was the team's initial head coach and was at the helm until the end of the 1982 season. Still then, an independent side, Roosevelt Landy took over. In 1987, the team joined the Sun Belt Conference for men's soccer, where they struggled to do well in the conference under Landy. Following Steuckenschneider's departure in 1994, Tim Sullivan took over the head coaching job. It was also the same year VCU left the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference to join the Colonial Athletic Association. Under Sullivan's tenure, the team enjoyed their most success both in conference play and in NCAA play, earning their first ever berth in the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship. Initially, the young team had struggles in the Colonial Athletic Association, finishing towards the bottom of the conference standings in its first two years. In 1997, the team vastly improved, earning a third-place regular season record and earning the CAA championship that year. In the 1997 Championship, the Rams defeated American University 9-8 in a penalty kick shootout after drawing 2–2 in regulation time.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.nmnathletics.com/fls/8500/supportfiles/Records/recordbookmsoc.pdf )〕 Since then the team won the CAA championship in 2002 and 2003, as well as winning the regular season title those same years as well as winning the honor in 2004.〔 The team's most successful run in the College Cup, the men's NCAA Division I Soccer Tournament, came in 2004, where the Rams entered the tournament as ranked 16th in the nation, earning a bye to the second round proper. In the second round, the Rams defeated George Washington, before upsetting the number-one seeded, Wake Forest Demon Deacons in penalty kicks. Reaching the regional finals, or quarterfinals in the entire tournament, VCU lost to eventual national finalists, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://wn.com/2004_Division_I_Men's_College_Cup )〕 Following the end of the 2009 season, VCU hit a team nadir, falling to last place in the CAA, their worst in the history. Following the conclusion of the season, 15-year head coach, Tim O'Sullivan was fired to be replaced by David Giffard, thus making Giffard the sixth head coach in VCU men's soccer history. Giffard's facelifting of the team was credited in their finishing as regular season runners-up in 2010. The Giffard-led program began play in the Atlantic 10 Conference during the 2012 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, where the Rams finished fourth in the Atlantic 10 table, and reached the final of the 2012 Atlantic 10 Men's Soccer Tournament, only to lose to Saint Louis in the final. The Rams secured an at-large bid to the 2012 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship, making it the first time since 2004 the Rams qualified. In the tournament, VCU was seeded fourteenth in the tournament. They lost to Syracuse Orange in the second round proper of the tournament, 3–2 after extra time. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「VCU Rams men's soccer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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