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Yes, they are Spartans. You might also call them Twins.

Now in its 50th year, the NCAA men's soccer tournament has invited 1,474 teams to participate. Eleven days ago, UNCG became only the sixth in that group to get in with a losing record.

Those odds are 1 in 246 -- about the same that a pregnancy will result in twins.

The Spartans are among the final 16 teams in the field these days, and they seek their first trip to the Division I quarterfinals when they play at eighth-seeded South Florida (15-4-2) tonight.

They got into the 48-team bracket because the NCAA graciously allows a spot for the champion of nearly every conference. The Southern Conference, like most, determines its champion by an all-inclusive tournament that largely forgives the teams' shortcomings of the previous two months.

What you do with the second life is up to you. Nobody had emerged from the seventh seed in the SoCon tourney to win until these Spartans pulled it off and entered the NCAAs at 8-11-2 for the season.

So they'd surely be dispatched by their first-round opponent, Duke, and call it a year. Of course, there was a formula for victory. In soccer, the underdog has a habit of retreating into a defensive shell and hoping to hold off its foe until the game progresses into penalty kicks. If it gets lucky, it'll turn one counter-attack into a goal late in regulation and hang on that way. The Spartans could always try that, and maybe they'd steal one.

They certainly fit the profile. In 21 previous games, they had scored all of 24 goals.

That's where the story began to deviate even further. UNCG played with Duke. Nirav Kadam, who had scored twice in 20 previous appearances on the season, put his team ahead in the 18th minute, and the Spartans were playing from strength.

Shots and corner kicks were even. The guys with the sheepish resume belonged, and they earned a right to play a second-round game at the No. 9 seed, Loyola of Maryland on Tuesday.

When the Greyhounds owned the first half and felt "unlucky" to lead only 1-0, it was reasonable to assume UNCG's turkey was cooked two days early.

The allegedly lesser team comes from behind and wins at this level about as often as a death-row inmate in Texas gets a call from the governor.

Curiously, the Greyhounds retreated. Time of possession, a statistic that can't easily be kept in this sport, began to favor the Spartans.

Jokull Elisabetarson, the senior from Iceland, got out in space with two running mates from far warmer climes, Tebatso Manyama of South Africa and Cruz Oronos of Converse, Texas. The homestanding favorites, who skated through the regular season unbeaten while their opponents once went 300 minutes without a single goal, were staggering.

"We decided to start pressuring them," Elisabetarson said, "and it paid off."

Kadam forced overtime with 16 minutes left and UNCG ended it shortly thereafter when a player who didn't see the field until 27 minutes remained in regulation smacked home the game-winner. Corey Maret gets to play near his hometown of Ocala, Fla.

The stunning part wasn't the win; it was the method. Often, the trailing team gets disjointed by throwing everybody forward, and it's vulnerable to the counter.

But UNCG looked like the more confident bunch this past Tuesday. As a result, it became the first team in tournament history to take a losing record into the event and win twice.

The Spartans have scored multiple goals in three straight games. They never did it twice in a row in the regular season.

So in terms of odds, perhaps the Twins have become the Triplets. And they won't turn down the extra help.

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