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11/3/2008 - WOMEN'S SOCCER
Women's Soccer Championship opens on Wednesday
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MACON, Ga. - The 15th Atlantic Sun Women's Soccer Championship kicks off on Wednesday in Kennesaw, Ga. The Mercer Bears enter the tournament with their first regular-season title with an A-Sun mark of 7-2-1. The championship will look a lot like 2007 as the same six teams enter into the tournament. Kennesaw State hosts the Championship for the third straight year. All seven matches can be viewed on ASun.TV.
As the regular-season champ, the Bears earned the top seed in the Championship. They will attempt to forget what occurred in 2007 when Kennesaw State demoed the Bears in the final with a 2-1 win. The Bears have entered into five previous championships with their best finish coming with last year’s runner-up showing. Recent history favors Mercer, as nine out of the 14 championships ended with the No. 1 seeded team winning the championship.
Another factor working in the Bears favor is their juggernaut defense. The Bears have the lowest goals-against average in the A-Sun at 0.54 and have only let in 10 goals in 18 games. Much of the success of the defense is due in thanks to goalkeeper Jean Worts. She owns a GAA of 0.58, leading the A-Sun, and finished tied for second in shutouts with four. Mercer leads the league in shutouts with 10.
Mercer’s in-state rival, Kennesaw State, claimed the No. 2 seed and the other bye into the semifinals. The Owls tied their opening A-Sun match, but closed on a win. In between, they had to work hard to earn wins the remaining seven league matches. Kennesaw State's offense kept them afloat with Rachel Baer leading the attack. She led in shots (51), goals (9) and points (20) during conference play.
In the 14-year history of the Atlantic Sun Women's Soccer Championship, only one school has successfully defended its title. UCF won three straight Championships from 1994 to 1996, then won back-to-back titles in 1998 and 1999; after a year absense, the Knights again three-peated from 2001-03. The Owls can join the Dolphins and Knights as the third team in league history to win multiple championships. Only the Owls, Jacksonville Dolphins and Campbell Camels, among current A-Sun institutions, have won an A-Sun Women’s Soccer Championship.
The opening match of the Championship features the 2006 champions, the Jacksonville Dolphins, and the fifth-seeded ETSU Buccaneers. It will be the second time the teams have met at the A-Sun championship. In 2006, the No. 5 Jacksonville dueled No. 4 ETSU to a double overtime draw, but Jacksonville beat out the Bucs in PKs 4-3. The Dolphins built on that match by stunning top-seeded Kennesaw State Owls in the semifinals and eventually defeating Stetson in the title match, 1-0 to become the first fifth-seeded team to win the championship.
Jacksonville enters the tournament in the fourth seed as they shut out UNF in its last game of the season. Jacksonville's Keri Zwikker looks to close out a stellar career that has included three first-team all-conference selections and the 2005 Freshman of the Year award. If Zwikker earns another all-conference honor, she will be the first in conference history named to the first team four times. Zwikker is second in the conference in points with 24 and fourth in goals with nine.
Junior Jordan Monty helped the Bucs clinch a spot in their fourth A-Sun conference tournament, after firing in both game-winning goals against Stetson and Florida Gulf Coast during the last weekend of conference play. Monty is tied for the lead in the conference in game-winning goals with four. ETSU's goalkeeper Megan Masch looks to put up a stellar showing in the tournament. The freshman is fourth in the league play with a 0.85 GAA and is third in saves with 50. ETSU’s seniors are the only class to see four consecutive years of postseason play in program history.
In the second quarterfinal match, Belmont, the No. 3 seed, battles Stetson, the No. 6 seed. These two met in the second-to-last weekend of the season with Belmont edging out a 2-1 victory in DeLand, Fla.. Stetson earned the final berth into the Championship when Mercer beat Campbell. Much of their success has been at the feet of Tessa Gavilsky. She leads the A-Sun in shots (69), points (29) and goals (11). Stetson enters the tournament 7-9-2 after a loss to FGCU. This is the third time the Hatters have entered into the tournament in the sixth seed. In both prior instances, 2003 and 2005, the Hatters upset the third seed and advanced to the semifinal round.
In the last weekend of conference play, Belmont pulled off two of the most dramatic wins in recent program history. With its double overtime win against Jacksonville and topping UNF, 4-0, the Belmont women had to await the results of the Kennesaw State/Mercer match to decide its seed in the 2008 Atlantic Sun Tournament. The upset at Kennesaw State moved the Bruins into the third seed heading into the tournament. It marked the second consecutive year Belmont earned the third seed. Freshman goalkeeper Sari Lin holds down the Bruins' net with four shutouts and a 0.87 goals against average. Belmont faces the No. 6 seed Stetson in a rematch of their regular season game when the Bruins won 2-1.
The Atlantic Sun Conference is an 11-member league committed to Building Winners for Life. The A-Sun stands for achievement with integrity in both the academic and athletic arenas, with a focus on the balance between the two for our student-athletes. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun boasts six of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun includes a blend of the most prestigious and dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.
