JAMAICA, N.Y. -- The eighth-ranked St. Johns departs today for Dallas, where the Red Storm will meet top-ranked Southern Methodist on Saturday in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division I Mens Soccer Tournament. Kickoff is slated for 8:30 p.m. (ET).

The Red Storm enter Saturday nights match with a 16-2-3 record and have won their last five matches, and seven of the last eight overall. St. Johns will be playing in its third Elite Eight in the last six years. SJU last advanced this far during the 1998 season, and its first appearance came in 1996, when the team won the Universitys first-ever national championship.

The Mustangs, ranked first in the country, are the only undefeated team in the country, posting a 21-0-0 record. They are led by senior forward Luchi Gonzalez, the recipient of this years Hermann Trophy (soccers equivalent of the Heisman Trophy), who has 21 goals and 12 assists for 53 points.

Weve got our work cut out for us, making sure we do a very good collective job defending and being able to nullify their individual abilities, St. Johns Head Coach Dave Masur said. I want to keep the game level or be hopefully ahead.

St. Johns has been led by seniors Shalrie Joseph (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Jeff Matteo (Brooklyn, N.Y.), who were named first-team All-BIG EAST this season, and also were selected to the first team in the NSCAA/adidas New York Region. Joseph, the teams leading scorer last season, has played mostly on defense this year, but has moved up front at times and tallied seven goals and four assist s for 18 points, third on the team. He has scored the game-winning goal in four of the last five matches. Matteo, the BIG EAST Midfielder of the Year, leads the team in scoring with eight goals and five assists for 21 points.

The Red Storm have also used a strong defensive effort in thwarting opponents this year. Led by sophomore center-back Chris Wingert (Babylon, N.Y.), SJU has shut out 11 opponents this year, yielded only 13 goals and 159 shots, a 7.6 per game average. Junior goalkeeper Guy Hertz (Ramat-Hasharon, Israel) has a 0.56 goals against average this season and owns a 16-2-3 record.