Columbia's Hot Soccer Team Freezes in NCAA Tournament

TAMPA, Fla.--Columbia University's soccer team saw the climax of its self-proclaimed "dream season" become a nightmare here this weekend, losing a pair of games to finish fourth among four teams in the NCAA Division 1 tournament.

The Lions were humiliated by Clemson's import-laden team, 4-1, in Saturday's semifinals, then dropped a tightly contested consolation match to Penn State yesterday, 2-1. Southern Illinois (Edwardsville), which had knocked off Penn State Saturday, stunned favorite Clemson 3-2, in a classic championship final yesterday.

The Lions, 14-1-1 on the season and fresh from a 5-1 gutting of Rhode Island in the regional final, had entertained such championship hopes upon taking the turf at near-empty (two day attendance: 8500) Tampa Stadium Saturday.

Those hopes were extinguished almost immediately by the Clemson Tigers, whose roster includes such ominous-sounding names as Nnamdi Nwokocha (fr., Nigeria), Obed Ariri (sr., Nigeria), Godwin Ogbueze (sr., Nigeria) and Vincent Chika (fr., Nigeria).

The Tigers badly outclashed the sluggish Lions, sending relentless lightning-quick strikes into the offensive zone.

Columbia's second team All-American forward Steve Charles scored his 26th goal of the year (doubling the previous Lion record) on an impossible-angle 25-yd. bullet late in the game to prevent a total rout. Charles also scored in the late going yesterday, but his single tally came after Nittany Lion All-American Jim Stamatis found the Columbia net with a pair of headballs to give Penn State a slim victory and a third-place finish.

"This game was a great disappointment," first-year Columbia coach Dieter Ficken said. "Whatever you work for, you try to crown it with something to show what you did."

Yesterday's final offered a unique study in contrasts: while Clemson bore a suspicious to the Nigerian national team, 18 of the 20 kickballers on SIU's roster learned the game on the sandlots of St. Louis.

For this day, at least, the All-American unit prevailed, thanks to Cougar Pat Malloy's hat trick--the last third of which came with 3:41 remaining to kill a ferocious, swarming Clemson rally.