The FGCU Eagles (12-3-2) begin their path to their fifth straight A-SUN Tournament Championship on Friday night in Nashville, Tennessee where they will lock up with Liberty (6-10-0) in the quarterfinals in a 7 PM (EST) opening kick at the Lipscomb Soccer Complex.
Last Time Out:
The Eagles come into the A-SUN Tournament on fire, having outscored their last three opponents 12-0 to close out the regular season. Even more impressive is FGCU's 83-15 shot advantage over the same stretch.
In their final game of the regular season, the Eagles saw themselves in a scoreless battle at the half with Stetson before bombarding the Hatters with three second half goals to run away with a 3-0 victory. It was Senior Night at the FGCU Soccer Complex, but it was the youngsters that stole the show as freshman Alyssa Abbondandolo scored twice and fellow freshman Brianna Hatfield converted a late free kick from just outside the 18' to put the icing on the cake of the three goal win.
Award Winners:
The Eagles have won nine awards and recognitions:
Juniors Lindsey Patton and the A-SUN Legion of Doom, Marjorie "Ma" Boilesen and Evdokia "Evi" Popadinova and senior Holly Fritz were named on the A-SUN All-Conference First Team, junior Melissa Weck was named on the A-SUN All-Conference Second Team and Abbondandolo was named on the A-SUN All-Freshman Team. For Fritz and Boilesen, this was their second time winning first team accolades.
"It is always an honor to have our kids be honored by our peers," head coach Jim Blankenship said. "These kids have worked so hard and it is great to see it getting rewarded. If you look at Weck only giving up three goals during the entire conference season, that is impressive! I am proud of how they represent our program on and off the field and couldn't be happier for them to be recognized."
Academically, Fritz and Patton were named on the A-SUN All-Academic Team with Fritz being named the A-SUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year. This was Patton's second straight year on the All-Academic Team.
"We are very proud of both Holly and Lindsey for representing us on the All-Academic Team," said Blankenship. "They both represent everything that we ask them to both on and off the field. It is a wonderful accomplishment for them and I am sure just the first of many for both of them."
Now I'm a little infuriated because Popadinova should have won the A-SUN Player of the Year instead of Lipscomb's Olivia Doak. Popadinova did better than Doak. I mean she had 13 goals compared to Doak's seven and had five goals in conference compare to Doak's three, so I feel the system was rigged.
Scouting the Lady Flames:
The only thing standing between Liberty and a six game winning streak heading into the playoffs has been the Eagles. FGCU has been the only team to knock off the Lady Flames in the past three weeks as they have climbed from the A-SUN cellar into a third place tie to end the year.
Liberty enters the tournament, like FGCU, on a three game winning streak and prior to their loss to the Eagles, handed Lipscomb their only loss of the conference season.
It has been a balanced attack for Liberty who has had 16 different players record points and nine different players score goals this season. Three different Lady Flames have three goals on the year including junior Gabrielle Farrell, freshman Zoey Gaffney, and senior Devon Sipala.
On the awards list, Farrell and sophomore Cora Duininck were named on the A-SUN All-Conference Second Team.
Gaffney and fellow freshman Madison Ellis were named on the A-SUN All-Freshman Team.
Senior Caroline Boone was named on the A-SUN All-Academic Team.
Despite their recent success, Liberty still ranks at the bottom of the conference in both goals for (7th) and goals against (8th) this season, however, in A-SUN action, they have worked more towards the middle of the park, holding a +.26 margin per game which ranked 5th.
Final Standings:
The final seeds have been set in stone:
#1 Lipscomb (12-4-2)
#2 NJIT (11-4-2
#3 Kennesaw State (12-5-1)
#4 FGCU (12-3-2)
#5 Liberty (6-10-0)
#6 North Alabama (9-8-1)
Due to their overall conference records, #7 North Florida (7-8-1), #8 Stetson (4-10-3), and #9 Jacksonville (1-14-1) did not qualify for the conference tournament since only six seeds can go.
What's at Stake:
The winner of the quarterfinals match will face Lipscomb in the semis. Lipscomb is listed as the #1 seed, and will have a first-round bye and await the winner between FGCU and Liberty.
On the other side in New Jersey, NJIT are listed as the #2 seed and will also have a first-round bye as they await the winner between #3 seed Kennesaw and #6 seed North Alabama.
This will be UNA first time in the A-SUN Tournament for women's soccer. If they win, it means nothing. I mean if they win the tournament, then great, however, since this is their first year in NCAA DI after transitioning from the NCAA DII Gulf South Conference, they will not be eligible to go to the NCAA National Women's Soccer Tournament due to the four-year transitional period, and instead the regular season champion will be going to the national tournament.
How to Watch:
The game will have livestats and will air on Lipscomb's Facebook Live page.
Livestats Link: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=235018
Livestream Link: https://www.facebook.com/LipscombWomensSoccer/
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