GREENSBORO, NC ? UNC Greensboro will visit Duke in the opening round of the 2008 NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament on Friday at 7:00 p.m., as was announced when the 48-team bracket was unveiled Monday night.

The Spartans (8-11-2) made the tournament as the automatic qualifier for the Southern Conference Tournament championship. The Blue Devils (10-7-2) made the tournament as an at-large team, one of 26 in the field. The winner of the UNCG-Duke game will face ninth-seeded Loyola-MD (18-1-1) in Baltimore for the second round on November 25. UNCG is the only team in the 48-team field that does not have a winning record.

Duke, which finished fifth in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season, lost in the ACC Tournament’s quarterfinal round to Virginia, 4-2. UNCG and Duke actually played each other in exhibition play back in August, with UNCG winning on a late goal, 1-0.

The Blue Devils are led by All-American Mike Grella, who led the team and the ACC with 36 points this season on 14 goals and eight assists. He had a hand in both of Duke’s goal in the loss to Virginia and is currently fourth in the nation in scoring at 2.00 points per game. He was named the league’s Offensive Player of the Year this season and was a Hermann Trophy semifinalist last year.

UNCG came out of the No. 7 seed to win the Southern Conference Tournament, the lowest seed to ever win the SoCon Tournament. Ironically, the Spartans entered the tournament with the second-best RPI in the league behind Elon, ranking No. 101. The Spartans defeated second-seeded and pre-season league favorite Furman, 2-1, in Greenville in the quarterfinals and then got past Georgia Southern in penalty kicks, 3-2, after a scoreless 110 minutes in the semifinals. The Spartans defeated College of Charleston in the championship game, 2-1, on Sunday. Corey Maret had a goal and an assist in the win for UNCG. Tebatso Manyama had the game-winning goal, just 57 seconds after the Cougars had tied the game early in the second half.

This will be UNCG’s 18th trip to an NCAA Tournament, the ninth as a Division I member and the fourth trip in the last five years. The last three bids have resulted in trips to the Round of 16. It will be the first time the two teams have ever met in the postseason.

Duke holds a 12-2-0 advantage in the all-time series, although the teams haven’t met since 2003.