ELON, N.C. – The No. 23 Elon men's soccer team suffered its first defeat in 2013 as the Phoenix fell to William & Mary, 1-0, in double-overtime on Friday night, Sept. 20, at Rudd Field.
 
Elon (5-1-1) suffered its first loss since falling to Coastal Carolina in the 2012 NCAA Tournament last season and its first regular-season loss since a 3-2 setback to College of Charleston last October.
 
"First off congratulations to William & Mary, they did a great job tonight," said Phoenix head coach Darren Powell. "They worked extremely hard and had a great game plan to pull out the victory. Our guys don't need to hang their heads; we will learn from this and improve our overall performance for Wednesday night against Radford."
 
William & Mary (3-2-1) earned its second win against a ranked opponent this week after upsetting then No. 1 Creighton, 3-2, last Sunday. The Tribe's Roshan Patel scored the golden goal in the 108^th minute of action after taking a pass on a free kick from Chris Albiston and Chris Perez. Patel was able to fire a shot past Elon keeper Nathan Dean to seal the win.
 
The Phoenix came out aggressive in the first half with Cauê Da Silva getting a couple of early opportunities near the goal within the first 10 minutes, but both shots went wide.
 
Those would be the only shots in the first half for the maroon and gold as William & Mary tightened the defensive pressure and nearly had an opportunity to get on the board in the 36^th minute. The Tribe's Will Smith had a shot nearly go past Dean, but the Liverpool, England, native manage to get a hand on it to preserve the first half shutout.
 
In the 65^th minute, the Tribe appeared to score the first goal of the contest after Albiston fired a shot that hit the post. The carom found the foot of a William & Mary player who sent it to the back of the net, but Elon caught a break as he was called offside.
 
In the second stanza, Elon was outshot 8-7, but had the final chance in regulation to win the match, but Jason Waterman's attempt from seven yards out was blocked.
 
Elon managed only one shot between the two overtime sessions and saw its six-match season-opening unbeaten streak come to an end. Dean made a career-high nine saves in the contest while playing every minute in the post. Da Silva led the Phoenix with four shots, followed by Waterman with three.
 
Elon closes out its four-match home stand on Wednesday, Sept. 25, against Radford. That match is scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff.