2011 NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament Bracket
 
HAMILTON, N.Y. (11/14/11) – The Colgate men's soccer team learned that it will face Rutgers in the First Round of the 2011 NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament on Thursday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. in Piscataway, N.J.
 
The Raiders, who will be making their sixth appearance in the NCAA Tournament, clinched a spot after defeating American 2-0 on Sunday to win the 2011 Patriot League Championship in Washington, D.C. Colgate will be one of the 48 teams to participate in the tournament, winning one of the 22 automatic bids.

This will be the ninth meeting between the two teams, with Colgate holding a 6-2 advantage in the all-time series since the teams first met in 1963. The Raiders have won two of the three meetings at Rutgers and have won the last five meetings in the overall series. Colgate's most recent win was a 5-1 win over the Scarlet Knights on October 30th, 1971 in Hamilton, N.Y.
 
The Raiders also made NCAA appearances in 1959, 1966, 1997, 2007, and most recently in 2008. In 1959 and 1966 Colgate hosted Bridgeport in the NCAA Playoffs, falling 3-2 in overtime and then 3-1 both in Hamilton, N.Y. The Raiders then returned to the tournament in 1997, experiencing a 2-0 setback at Bowling Green in the Play-in game. After winning the PL Championships in 2007 and 2008, Colgate had back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament, but fell to South Florida 2-1 and then to Boston College 2-0 both on the road in the first round. The Raiders will look to make program history with their first NCAA Tournament win on Thursday.

Rutgers earned an at-large bid to the tournament after falling to Connecticut, 3-1, in the quarterfinals of the BIG EAST Tournament on Nov. 6. The Scarlet Knights own a 9-6-3 overall record and went 6-1-2 in BIG EAST play.