DUDLEY, Mass. – The Nichols College men's soccer team has earned the No. 7 seed in the 2015 Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) championship and will travel to take on No. 2 seed Western New England on Saturday, October 31st at 1:00 p.m.

The Bison are making their eighth-consecutive CCC postseason appearance and ninth overall under 11th year men's head soccer coach Chris Traina. They finished the 2015 regular season with a 7-11-0 record and 3-6-0 record within conference play.

"We had eight starters leave the program this year, and it showed because every match this year was a battle," said Traina. "Through the ups and downs we got the CCC wins to get back into the postseason."

Freshman Zachary Lemire (Lowell, Mass.) leads Nichols with eight goals and 17 points on the season ranking him fourth and eighth in the CCC in those categories, respectively. Junior Ryan Banker (Ashaway, R.I.) comes into the playoffs as the Bison's hottest player having scored four of his five goals on the season in the Bison's final five games, including two against CCC-rival Gordon.

On the defensive side, Nichols enters the CCC Tournament having allowed just 29 goals on the year – two less than WNE – and have made the second most saves in the CCC (122) behind only Curry. Senior captain Alex Geas (Somers, Conn.) is fourth in the conference in saves with 84 and fifth in the CCC with a .816 save percentage. Geas and freshman netminder Patrick Porpora (Westminster, Mass.) have combined for five shutouts on the season along with a 1.74 goals against average.

WNE (10-7-0, 8-1-0 CCC) sophomore Troy Remillard (Palmer, Mass.) who ranks second in the conference in both goals (11) and points (24) is also second in the CCC in goals (6) and points (14) within conference play. Junior Kevin Strobel (Rockland, Mass.) leads all CCC-goaltenders with eight conference wins.

The Bison dropped the meeting with the Golden Bears during the regular season 2-1 back on October 24th in Springfield. Junior Aaron Sinclair (Saco, Maine) scored the only goal for the Bison in the game while Remillard scored the game-winner for WNE at the end of the first half.

Nichols is 0-3-1 against WNE in the last four meetings between the teams including a 2-1 double overtime loss in the CCC Semifinal Round back in 2013.

"It has been a while since we were not hosting in the postseason, but this is a new and exciting team and we have players that have a wealth of experience in the CCC," said Traina. "We look forward to head back to play a great Western New England for the first round."

Other quarterfinal matchups scheduled for Saturday include No. 1 Endicott (13-1-3, 8-0-1 CCC) hosting No. 8 Curry (10-8-1, 2-6-1 CCC) at a time to be announced. In addition, No. 3 Gordon (12-4-0, 7-2-0 CCC) will host No. 6 Roger Williams (8-8-1, 4-5-0 CCC) at 1:00 p.m., while No. 4 Wentworth (13-4-0, 6-3-0 CCC) will host No. 5 Salve Regina (6-9-2, 4-4-1 CCC) at a time to be announced.