SMU Tournament Central (Video Stream/Live Stats)

DALLAS, TX—The Winthrop men's soccer team will look for its first ever win in the NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament  when it faces Southern Methodist University, Thursday evening at 8 p.m. in the first round.

The Eagles (12-8-1) earned a spot in the automatic bid by capturing the Big South Conference with a 3-2 win over top-seeded Coastal Carolina in the championship match. Winthrop defeated the top three seeds on its way to the fifth conference title in school history and the fifth in the last 11 seasons.

After battling injuries and for a good part of the middle of the season, Winthrop finally got most of its players back over the final week and a half of the regular season and just in time. Winthrop captured the championship in dramatic fashion by defeating Liberty and Radford in overtime games. Then trailing 2-1 with under five minutes remaining in the title game, Winthrop scored two goals with the game winner coming with just over a a minute and a half to play when junior Mason Lavallet came to the rescue for the Eagles. It was his second game-winning goal of the tournament as he netted the overtime winner at Liberty in the opening round.

The Eagles are ranked 28^th nationally in scoring at 1.81 as senior Alex Isern leads the offense with nine goals and eight assists on the year.  Lavallet is tied for second on the team with seven goals with senior Marc Segarra. Junior Achille Obougou has six goals and is returning to the line-up after having to sit in the championship game after receiving his second yellow of the match late in the game on Friday against Radford. Obougou brings a different element to the Winthrop offense with his size as he and Segarra stand about six feet four inches and cause match-up problems for most teams as both are also very skilled with their feet.

A big part of the success has been the emergence of senior goalkeeper Enrique Miranda. The goalie position wasn't exactly an issue in the first place as was the organization and shuffling around defensively but head coach Rich Posipanko and his staff decided on a change of pace. Miranda got a start on Oct. 9 at Presbyterian College and earned a shutout in a 2-0 win. Two games later Miranda was inserted back in net as the starter and has been there since. The Eagles are 7-2-1 this season when Miranda starts as he's played a big part with some big time saves. Miranda is no stranger to success in the postseason as he started as a freshman and was in goal when the Eagles captured the 2009 Big South Championship.

30^th-ranked SMU enters the contest with a 10-5-4 record and coming off a loss in the Conference USA championship match. The Mustangs have enjoyed another good season as they traditionally do. The Eagles and Mustangs actually have one common opponent this year as SMU tied Campbell 1-1 in the season opener and Winthrop fell 5-2 at Campbell on Oct. 13 (which turned out to be the game that jump started Winthrop's turn around). This is the third straight NCAA Tournament appearance for SMU.

It will be tough task for the Eagles as SMU is 6-0-3 at home on the season and have only given up four goals in those nine games. The Mustangs enjoyed a four-game win streak at the beginning and the end of an unbeaten streak of nine games in the middle of the regular season. During that time they had 1-0 victories over #23 University of Alabama-Birmingham and #20 Tulsa.

Sophomore midfielder Tyler Engel will test the Eagles defense all day as he leads SMU in scoring with eight goals and seven assists with five of his goals going in as game-winners. Sophomore Andrew Morales is second on the team with four goals and four assists.

Junior goalkeeper Jamie Ibarra has been impressive in net with a 0.94 goals against average until the championship match loss pushed his average to 1.14. However, he's been strong on all season and even better at home with the five shutouts and allowing just four goals. He was named the Conference USA Player of the Year and the Defensive Player of the Year.

All these elements should make for a good first round game as both teams look to head to Louisville, KY for a second round matchup on Sunday at the University of Louisville.

For any fans attending the game, SMU's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) will be participating in the "Let's SAAC Hunger" program, a Conference USA conference-wide community service initiative. SMU is offering $2 tickets to any fan that brings two canned items to the SMU Ticket Office on game day. There is a limit of one ticket per two-can donation. All of SMU's collected goods will be donated to the North Texas Food Bank.

Normal ticket prices:
$6 adults
$3 children 12 and under
$2 per ticket for groups of 20+
$1 SMU faculty, staff and students

NOTES OF INTEREST

• Winthrop won its 5^th  Big South Title after defeating Coastal Carolina in the title match, 3-2
• It was the highest ranked team Winthrop has ever defeated
• The previous high was 10^th-ranked Coastal Carolina in 2002
• Head Coach Rich Posipanko has been at the helm for all five titles for Winthrop
• Posipanko has a 5-2 record in the Big South Championship game and has faced Coastal Carolina four times in the title game
• Winthrop is 0-3-1 all-time in the NCAA Tournament
• The Eagles had just one player named to the All-Big South Conference Teams
• Eagles tied for the lowest seed to ever win the Big South Tournament (6^th Seed)
• The previous two seasons, Winthrop was knocked out of the conference tournament in the first round for first time in school history (Double-check that)
• Winthrop has second most appearances in the Big South Championship match (9)
• Alex Isern joins Valli Arnason, Daniel Revivo, Matthew Skonicki and Miquel Casajuana as the Big South Tournament MVP
• Winthrop has now defeated Big South power Coastal Carolina in three of its five championship victories
• This is the first meeting with SMU in school history
• This is the first time Winthrop has had to travel by plane to an NCAA Tourney game
• Eagles are 1-3 against Nationally Ranked Opponents this season