BURNABY – SFU Men's Soccer saw its grasp on a Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship greatly diminished after it lost 3-0 at Montana State Billings Saturday afternoon at Yellowjacket Field but it still clings to a sliver of hope to win the conference crown.

SFU sits in third place in the conference with 15 points with a 5-4 conference record, 8-7 overall, with just its senior send-off home game remaining Nov. 13 against Western Washington at SFU Stadium.

SFU is currently two points behind both No. 18 Seattle Pacific and WWU, who played to a 1-1 double overtime tie Saturday evening. SFU can take care of business by beating Western Washington in its final game, pick up three points for the win and leap-frog the Viking in the standings. But SFU also needs Seattle Pacific to lose its final two games this upcoming week against Saint Martin's (Thursday) and Northwest Nazarene (Saturday), both on the road. The Falcons boast a 11-2-2 overall record

The conference championship guarantees an automatic berth into the NCAA Championship tournament. 

Seattle Pacific came in at No. 10 while Simon Fraser was No. 12 in the NCAA's first Super Region 4 rankings released this week. The NCAA will select 10 teams from the Super Region to participate in the postseason. Two losses this week will drop SFU further down the Super Region 4 rankings and all but eliminate its chance for an at-large berth to the national tournament.

Saturday, SFU conceded two goals less than two minutes apart to fall behind 2-0 before the game was 19 minutes old and then surrendered a third goal in the 38^th minute for an insurmountable deficit.

There would be no miracle come-back. SFU managed six shots in the second half and couldn't create the space needed to put one in. For the game, SFU directed 15 shots at the MSUB keeper, with Rahid Rahiem, Bjorn Borren and Sidrit Vukaj taking three shots each.

Aidan Bain, who has seven shutouts this season, made four saves in the loss.

--@SFU_Athletics--