The Elon University men’s soccer team put up a gritty performance against the No. 10 ranked team in the country, the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, on Sept. 30 resulting in a 0-0 tie to chalk up their current record at 5-1-4 this season. 

Head coach Marc Reeves said there were good things to take away from Elon’s performance, but he admitted a victory would’ve been great. 

“I was pleased with our performance, just the result was not what we wanted,” Reeves said. “But that, again, that's college soccer, the parody, it's really close, all teams are prepared and ready to play, and you have to compete and kind of force a way to win.”

The beginning of the game started off mostly one-sided with the Spartans controlling much of the offense and forcing Elon to defend for a majority of the first period. 

Elon graduate student goalkeeper Jackson Leavitt played a critical role in the Phoenix’s defensive performance, and it started early in the game when he made two crucial saves around the 8-minute mark. 

Reeves said he was pleased by Elon’s ability to limit the amount of chances UNCG had at scoring. 

“They've got some really high level players, really good patterns of players, some really good movements and explosive technical guys and, you know, we gave them some shots, but we didn't give away a ton of chances,” Reeves said. 

At the 24-minute mark Elon was able to break through UNCG’s midfielders and started to move the ball more toward the offensive side of the field. This resulted in the Phoenix getting its first shot on goal, which was ultimately blocked by redshirt junior goalkeeper Seth Wilson. 

The physicality of the match started to erupt ever so slightly once the end of the first period started to draw near. Elon redshirt freshman midfielder Oscar Tonidandel received the first yellow card of the game for unsporting conduct, which led to a free kick for UNCG.

This gave the Spartans some momentum on offense, and they took full advantage by opening up a shot attempt for junior forward Enzo Dovlo. They nearly took a one-point lead with 14 minutes left in the period, but the pass to Dovlo was slightly too far in front of him and Leavitt made a diving play to grab the ball on the ground.

After a crucial yellow card on UNCG sophomore defender Mohammed Sumaila, the Spartans made some changes with three substitutions 34 minutes into the period, but it didn't result in much because the score stayed 0-0 until the end of the first period. 

Senior defender Majaliwa Msabaha said the coaches have done a great job putting the players in position to make plays defensive. He said the team is always organized whenever they need to defend the opposition. 

“Our coaches do a good job of making sure that we know how they attack, we know how to recover, we know where to be on the field and being structured,” Msabaha said.

The physicality ramped up as the second half of the game kicked off. At the end of the first 45 minutes of play, Elon had racked up four fouls and UNCG had tallied three. By the end of the game both teams more than doubled that amount as Elon ended with 10 and UNCG finished with eight. 

A big component of this was the defense on both teams, as well as the aggression and energy they displayed on that side of the field. Elon was able to neutralize the Spartans to one shot on goal in the first period and UNCG one-upped this performance by allowing zero shots. 

By the second half, though, both teams were able to slightly open up the field and eventually draw more action toward the goal. 

Elon finished with only one total shot on goal, while UNCG managed to put up three, including two near misses in the latter section of the game. 

Fortunately, Leavitt and the rest of the Phoenix defense was able to step up in the clutch, including a big time block at the bottom of the left corner by Leavitt with almost 30 minutes left. 

The last 20 minutes were mostly back and forth physical gameplay that resulted in some exciting displays of skill on both sides, but ultimately led to a hard-fought stalemate in the end.

Msabaha said he knew it was going to be a tough game, and while he was glad the team competed the way i did, a victory would’ve been rewarding. 

“Even though we ended up with a tie on our own home field, it's not a bad result,” Msabaha said. “We're satisfied, but we'd be more pleased if we won the game.”

The Phoenix travels to play Clemson University at 7 p.m. Oct. 4.