The Columbia International University men's soccer team made the trip to Barbourville, KY to take part in a tournament hosted by Union College. The Rams had the tough task of playing the host on opening night. The Bulldogs also open their season with a #13 ranking in the NAIA preseason poll. The Rams battled and even had the game tied, but the Bulldogs battled and beat the Rams by a final score of 3-1. With the loss the Rams move to 0-1 on the young season and the Bulldogs move to 1-0.

The Bulldogs jumped out on the Rams early as they were able to register the first two shots of the game, but that didn't scare the Rams as junior Braden Elmer got a shot off six minutes into the game just to have it saved by the goalie. However, the Bulldogs would get the next two shots on goal and convert on the latter half of those to give them an early one goal lead, but just like before the Rams didn't back down and came back just over ten minutes later to tie the game at one. The goal was scored by junior Zach Wolfenden as he was able to put the ball in the top right corner. Unfortunately for the Rams it was just under four minutes until the Bulldogs had the lead again as they converted a penalty kick to go back up by one. The Rams would get one more shot throughout the rest of the half with Elmer having the best chance right before half, but the Rams would go into halftime down by one.

Unfortunately, the second half didn't start out how the Rams would have like. The Bulldogs were able to put pressure on the back line of the Rams and find the back of the net just over a minute into to second half to take a two goal lead. The Rams were not going to go down without a fight though as they continued to push the pace and battle. They would have their chances, but once the Bulldogs had their two goal lead they focused more on defensive and conserving the lead. As the horn sounded the game ended in a 3-1 loss for the Rams to host Union College.

The Rams had good offensive numbers as they had 9 shots with 6 of them on goal...They also had 4 corner kicks with all of them coming in the first half...Wolfenden led the Rams as he had the lone goal...Elmer had two shots on goal and Luke Brooks had two saves for the Rams.

The Rams will be back in action again tomorrow as they face off against University of the Cumberlands. The game will be live streamed and can be seen through the athletic page for Union College.