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ROCK HILL, SC— Looking for its third straight win, the Winthrop men's soccer team hosts Longwood University on “Senior Night”, Wednesday evening at 7 p.m.

Winthrop faces Longwood for the first time in a conference match as the Lancers just joined the Big South Conference at the start of the 2012-13 season.

The Eagles are 8-7-1 overall and 4-3-1 in the Big South after two straight wins and face a Longwood team that is 3-11-3 on the year and 2-6-1 in the league. Longwood had to play conference opponents in six of its first seven games of the season and have played just one league game since Sept. 26 after a 1-0 loss to Campbell.

Winthrop is looking to keep its hopes alive for a possible finish among the Top 4 teams in the league, which would mean a first round Big South Tournament game at home on Tuesday, Nov. 6. Coastal Carolina has wrapped up the #1 seed, but Radford and Campbell currently sit at six wins in league play while Liberty and High Point have five wins.

The Eagles are coming off a 1-0 win against Virginia Military Institute, a game they had several chances to score but were having a hard time finishing until the 78^th minute. Sophomore Sean Comer came on as a sub just a few minutes before netting his first collegiate game-winning goal as he finished a service from Tomas Brennan at the near post.

Wednesday night's game will be “Senior Night” for the Eagles as they recognize eight seniors playing in what could be their final game on Eagle Field. Brennan along with Enrique Miranda, Patrick Walsh, Matt Sluga, Marc Segarra, Josh Mort, Daniel Di Biagio and Alex Isern will be recognized prior to kickoff. The eight of them combined to play in over 310 games in their careers.

Isern will look to add to his team-best seven goals and seven assists as he currently ranks 41^st nationally in points per game and is 28^th in total assists. Looking to catch Isern in goals is junior Achille Obougou, who has six goals on the year and is ranked 86^th nationally in goals per game.

Miranda has been inserted into the starting lineup in six of the last seven games and has made five consecutive starts, not allowing more than a goal and picking up two shutouts. He now has 10 career shutouts and ranks 5^th on Winthrop's all-time list. This past week he made six saves against Gardner-Webb to earn a 2-1 win in overtime and then made three saves in a shutout victory of VMI and for his efforts was named the Big South Conference Defensive Player of the Week.

The Eagles offense has cooled off a bit over the past four games, but continues to rank among the nation's best with a 1.81 average (ranked 34^th). The Eagles are 42^nd nationally in total goals.

Longwood has lost two straight games and is 0-3-2 in the last five games with the last win coming on Sept. 29 at George Washinton, 3-1.

Senior forward Devin Pierce leads Longwood with three goals and an assist and is tied for the team lead in points with sophomore Jonathan Kukapa, who has two goals and three assists. Both of Kukapa's goals are game-winners.

Longwood has used a rotation in net as sophomore Paul Hegedus has a team-high 753 minutes and 58 seconds in goal in nine games. Freshmen Carl Carpenter and Seth Erdman have each appeared in seven games. Hegedus has been in net for two of the three shutouts, but Erdman has started the last two games.
 
Game Notes
-This is the first meeting between the two schools since Sept. 9, 2007 when the Eagles squeaked out a 1-0 victory on the road at the Lancer Invitational.
-Winthrop is 3-0 all-time against Longwood and 2-0 at Eagle Field
-Winthrop is looking for first three-game win streak for the second time this season
-Miranda was named Big South Defensive Player of the Week
-Eagles are 1-6 when allowing more than one goal
-Longwood has recorded three shutouts and been shutout nine times (two of them are 0-0 ties)
-Winthrop is 3-0-1 in overtime this season while Longwood is 0-1-3
-Rich Posipanko started his collegiate coaching career at Longwood