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LOUISVILLE, KY—After advancing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history, Winthrop remains on the road as it takes on #10 Tournament Seed Louisville Sunday night at 7 p.m.
Winthrop (12-8-2) will look to continue its hot streak, having won six of its last eight games and currently riding a four-game unbeaten streak. It's the national tournament so the competition only gets tougher with each round as Louisville enters the game ranked10th by Soccer America, 15
th by CollegeSoccerNews.com, 16
th by SoccerTimes.com and 17
th by the NSCAA.
The Eagles prevailed over Southern Methodist (28
th by CSN) in penalties by a score of 3-1 as senior goalkeeper
Enrique Miranda made three saves to deny the Mustangs a date with the Cardinals. Winthrop is now 0-3-2 all-time in the tournament as the other tie came in 2006 as the Eagles lost 4-3 in penalties.
On Thursday night, the Eagles trailed and rallied for the fourth straight game as
Achille Obougou redirected the ball into the net in the 88
th minute to tie the match as Winthrop held strong in overtime and pulled it out in PK's.
It was Miranda that stole the show with not only the three penalty saves, but several key saves through the match to keep the Eagles in the game. The victory in the penalty shootout was the third in Miranda's career. He and the Eagles have advanced in all three. He is now 7-2-2 on the year with a .98 goals against average with three shutouts and an .800 save percentage.
Obougou, who missed the Big South Conference title game, worked hard for his goal that tied the match in the 88
th minute as he now has seven goals and three assists on the year.
Alex Isern leads the team with nine goals and eight assists and nearly had his 10
th but his shot from 35 yards out was saved by SMU's Jaime Ibarra on a full stretched diving save.
Marc Segarra, who hit the post on a shot at the top of the box in the first overtime on Thursday, also has seven goals on the year as does
Mason Lavallet (three game-winners).
Louisville dropped its last game with a 2-1 loss to 10
th-ranked Marquette, who is coincidently the next opponent for whoever wins this game Sunday night. The Cardinals had an impressive record playing in a very tough Big East Conference as they enter the game at 12-5-1 with wins over Wake Forest, Notre Dame, St. John's and a tie with Indiana.
Prior to the loss against Marquette in the Big East Tournament, Louisville had won five straight with three shutouts. Louisville has been strong at home with a 9-2-1 record as they played 12 of their 18 games on the year at Cardinal Park.
Offensively the Cardinals are very balanced with the leading goal scorer with five goals, but five players have at least four goals for a team averaging 1.72 goals per game. Senior Greg Cochrane has the most goals on the team from his defensive position while sophomore's Will Vitalis and Dylan Mares along with junior Andrew Farrell and senior Ryan Smith all have four goals apiece.
Junior Mike Mauro has seen most of the action in net for the Cardinals as he's 9-2-1 on the year with a 0.82 goals against average and recorded five shutouts.
While Winthrop is 1-3 against Top 25 teams this season, Louisville is 3-2-1 with one top 10 win.
This will be just the second meeting all-time between Winthrop and Louisville as they met back in 2004. They were supposed to play in Lexington, KY as part of the Kentucky Invitational but weather forced the game to Cardinal Park for a late game that started just after 9 p.m. Louisville scored in double-overtime for a 2-1 victory.