Chris Arias

No. 3 Florida International Survives Against Columbia 15-13 in National Collegiate Club Championship First Round

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Chris Arias (Gr., Miami, Fla.) and Alexander Lipin (Jr., Moscow, Russia) both tallied six goals to account for 3/4 of No. 3 Florida International University's tallies and share Player of the Game honors as the Golden Panthers survived a late comeback by Columbia University for a 15-13 victory in the opening round of the 2009 Men's National Collegiate Club Championship at the University of Florida.

The victory advances FIU to a second round meeting at 10:10 a.m. on Saturday, November 14 versus the winner of a first round meeting between No. 15 University of Illinois-Chicago and No. 2 University of Utah, while Columbia will meet the loser of the UIC-Utah game at 6:20 p.m. tonight in the consolation round.

Leading 14-8 after three periods of play, the Golden Panthers saw their lead quickly evaporating in the fourth period as Kai Golden (Fr., Hawaii, Hawaii) buried a penalty shot at 6:19, Will Reid (Gr., Greenwich, Conn.) found the back of the cage at 3:53 and tallied a penalty shot at 2:35 while Jake Tullipan (Gr., Chicago, Ill.) added a marker at 3:17 to pull the Lions to within 14-12 with two and a half minutes to play.

The lead continued to dwindle as Golden cashed in at 1:55 to pull Columbia to within one at 14-13, but the Golden Panthers defense and offense were just enough as FIU held the Lions in check in front of their cage.  On offense, Mario Mora (Sr., Miami Beach, Fla.) tossed in a marker with 41 seconds left on the clock for an insurance goal as FIU survived the upset bid 15-13.

In cage, Theo Jenetopolous (Sr., Miami, Fla.) made five saves to pick up the win, while Xande Wright (Sr., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) batted away 11 shots for Columbia

FIU Goals: Chris Arias (6); Alexander Lipin (6); Mario Mora; Mario Mora

Columbia Goals: Will Reid (5); Kai Golden (3); Chris Vola (2); Keating McKeon (2)

Saves: FIU - Theo Jenetopolous (5) ; Columbia - Xande Wright (11)

Exclusions: FIU - 7 ; Columbia - 4

Advantage Opportunities: FIU - X-for-4 ; Columbia - X-for-7

Sprints: FIU - 4-for-4 ; Columbia - 0-for-4