Eagles Look for Second-Straight Postseason Upset at UNCG
10/27/2012 5:03:31 PM | Women's Soccer
VIDEO: SoCon preview interview with Coach Lindsey Vanderspiegel
STATESBORO, Ga. – Georgia Southern Women’s Soccer opens the 2012 Southern Conference Tournament for the second-straight year at UNCG. The Eagles took a shock 2-1 victory over the second-seeded Spartans last year, 2-1. This year the Eagles enter the postseason as the No. 8 seed with the Spartans winning the regular season SoCon Championship. Sunday’s clash starts at 3 p.m. from the UNCG Soccer Stadium.
On Wednesday night the Eagles took a 1-0 win over Davidson to do their part in earning a postseason bid. Losses by Western Carolina and The Citadel in the league’s other matches handed the Eagles the eighth seed in the tournament after a nervy wait for the final matches to conclude. Alex Murphy provided Georgia Southern’s goal, an 83rd minute strike that found its way to the net.
Sydnie Van Curen leads the GSU offense with five goals and one assist. The trio of Nora El-Shami, Courtney Collins and Murphy each have four goals and three assists for 11 points each. Freshman Stephanie Gratto also has four goals in her first season for the Eagles. Goalkeeper Katie Merson has played all 1,790 minutes of the season between the pipes, posting a 0.96 goals against average, making 88 saves and posting seven shutouts this year.
The Eagles faced UNCG on October 14th, dropping a 1-0 result with a 54th minute Spartan strike being the difference.
In last year’s SoCon Tournament game between the teams, Southern drew first blood as McKenna Storey got on the end of her sister, Carlee Storey’s, corner kick to give GSU a 1-0 lead. The Spartans equalized in the 21st minute, but an 85th minute strike from Sara Oland took the Eagles to the SoCon Semifinals.
Entering the postseason UNCG is 12-6-1 with a 9-1-1 mark in league games, dropping only a 1-0 result to Western Carolina on the first weekend of league play. The Spartans are on a six-game winning streak with six-straight shutouts.
The winner of Sunday’s contest advances to the semifinals of the SoCon Tournament which is being hosted this year by Samford. The semifinal round will be held on Friday, November 2nd.
Fans can follow their Eagles at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com or receive short updates at facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics or on Google+ at gplus.to/GSAthletics.
