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Mountaineers to square off against Cougars in SoCon tournament |
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Thursday, 26 October 2006 |
by MATT SCHNEIDER
Sports Reporter
History won’t help the Appalachian State University men’s soccer team as they face the College of Charleston in the opening round of the Southern Conference Tournament Sunday.
The Mountaineers have lost all three of their tournament matches
against the Cougars. However, the Mountaineers beat Charleston Oct. 21
in the conference finale, 4-2.
Playing in the tournament is different than a regular season match.
“A tournament atmosphere is going to bring out the best in them and the
best in us as well,” ASU head coach Paul Stahlschmidt said.
The Cougars have home field advantage and will host the Mountaineers in the first round game in Charleston.
“Playing them at their place, they have the advantage,” assistant
coach Liam Farrell said. “They beat us the last three years, but it
gives our guys confidence since we beat them this year.”
Despite losing a non-conference match to No. 25 Virginia Tech 1-0, Stahlschmidt is pleased with how ASU has recently performed.
“The work rate of the team is where it needs to be. I think we are
peaking at the right moment as far as quality of play,” Stahlschmidt
said.
Sophomore Juan Obregon and freshman Arie Muniz have tallied seven goals
each during the season and lead the team’s offensive attack.
Muniz was named the SoCon player of the week last week.
“It’s rare for a newcomer to perform on such a high level,” Stahlschmidt said. “He’s arguably the best freshman in the league.”
Also, junior Corey Lugger is fifth in the nation with 11 assists.
In the first round of the tournament, the higher seed is the home team.
In the semifinal and championship matches, games will be played in Greenville, S.C., home of Furman University.
The Mountaineers are the fifth seed in the eight-team tournament.
They finished the regular season with a 3-3-2 Southern Conference record.
However, there is not much distance between the number one and number six seeded teams.
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro is the top seed and had 16 points during the season.
Elon University is the sixth seed and had 10 points.
“The tournament is so wide open,” Farrell said. “On any given day a team can beat anyone.”
Appalachian proved Farrell’s point in the regular season, being the
only team to defeat the Greensboro Spartans. ASU won 3-2 on Oct. 7 at
Greensboro.
If the Mountaineers can knock off the Cougars in the first round, a rematch with UNCG might be next.
“The last three or four games we’ve played pretty well,” Farrell said.
“We know we can play with the top teams in the conference.”
Second seeded Georgia Southern University takes on the seventh seeded
Davidson College in the opening match Saturday. Furman plays Elon in
the 3-6 match up, and UNCG takes on Wofford University in the 1-8 game.
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