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GREENSBORO -- The worst should always be this good.

Barring a run deep into the NCAA tournament, the 2008 UNCG men's soccer team will finish with a losing record for the first time in the school's 18-year Division I history. And the Spartans won't fret over it, either. Not after a redemptive Southern Conference tournament and the accompanying postseason bid, announced Monday night. The Spartans (8-11-2) will play at Duke at 1 p.m. Saturday, continuing a season that once seemed lost.

"It came to the point where we knew we had a losing record, but we knew that if we got to the tournament, that would be something to cheer about," said Tebatso Manayama, author of the game-winning goal in Sunday's SoCon victory over the College of Charleston. "And it's not over yet."

UNCG will be only the sixth team in the championship's 50-year history to enter the fray with a losing record. The Spartans' total of 11 defeats ties a tourney record previously held by the 2001 New Mexico Lobos, who were 6-11-2. By the way, the Lobos won their first-round game over Florida International.

The Spartans accentuated the value of persistence and the wonders of the automatic bid. Winning the SoCon tourney as the seventh seed extends a season that won't impress anybody numerically. The Spartans have scored 24 goals in 21 games. Manayama and Tim Masters lead their team with four goals apiece. UNCG suffered through a 308-minute scoreless stretch in midseason.

Think they care?

"It wasn't easy all the time," team captain Jokull Elisabetarson admitted. "We knew we would struggle on the offense side. That was kind of expected. But we just kept going."

Coach Michael Parker, who may suffer the first losing season in a 33-year career, won't say everything's great. But the Englishman, owner of more wins (486) than any of the other 202 active coaches in Division I, still appreciates 2008. It beats the tar out of 1999-2003, during which the Spartans went 28-9-2 in SoCon play and never got to the NCAAs. Now the program is in the field for the fourth time in five years.

"We always felt this team had potential," Parker said. "It just never got on track for a number of reasons."

After upending Furman in the SoCon quarters, the Spartans advanced past Georgia Southern in a shootout when goalkeeper Nate Berry repelled three of the Eagles' five penalty kicks. The College of Charleston pulled into a 1-1 tie in the title game, and Manayama let the Cougars enjoy it for all of 57 seconds before he drilled the eventual game-winner.

On Monday, players and coaches gathered at the Old Town Draught House -- they imbibed soda, if you must know -- to watch the selections announced on one of the various networks in the ESPN family. Much like the season, it didn't have an immediate payoff.

The network said the soccer pairings would be revealed between 6 and 6:30 p.m., and so the Spartans watched patiently as the anchors breathlessly dissected four of the previous day's NFL games and declared that North Carolina basketball star Tyler Hansbrough won't play against Kentucky tonight. At 6:15 p.m., the phrase "Breaking News" appeared on the screen. This had to be it.

The Boston Celtics' Kevin Garnett, they said, has been suspended for one game for striking Andrew Bogut of the Milwaukee Bucks. Scholars can determine whether striking Bogut is, in fact, a suspension-worthy offense. The Spartans were still waiting.

They figured they'd get UNC or Duke in the first round. Their captain had one wish: liberation from the quadrant of defending champion Wake Forest, the top seed. He got his wish. Saturday's winner plays at Loyola (Md.) at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

"They're one of the teams that's just too good," Elisabetarson said of the Demon Deacons. "They're better than every team in the country. We can beat some teams that are better than us, but I don't want to play Wake. And I'm not ashamed to say that."

That's not to say the Spartans will be cocky when facing the Blue Devils (10-7-2) even though UNCG claimed a 1-0 victory in an exhibition game three months ago.

"I don't know how much we can take away from that one because I don't know how excited they really were about it," Elisabetarson said.

UNCG will take something from this season beyond disappointment.

"I don't think they wanted to go down in history as the worst performing team at UNCG in the Division I era," Parker said. "And now they won't."

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rob.daniels@news-record.com