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ROCK HILL, SC—The sixth-seeded Winthrop men's soccer team will face second-seeded Radford, Friday night at Bryan Park in Greensboro, NC in the semifinals of the 2012 Big South Conference Championship.

The Eagles advanced to the semifinals by knocking off defending Big South Champion Liberty, 2-1 in overtime Tuesday evening on the road. Radford advanced to the semifinals by defeating seventh-seeded Gardner-Webb 2-0.

Less than a week ago the Eagles traveled to Radford, VA to take on the Highlanders in the regular season finale. Winthrop came out strong with a couple of good opportunities early before Radford took over the game and finished with a 2-0 win.

The history between the two teams goes back a long way, but there hasn't been too many contests of win or go home since this will be just the fourth time Winthrop and Radford have faced each other in the Big South Tournament. The previous three matches were all in the semifinals with the Eagles taking two of the three.

Winthrop (10-8-1) and Radford (10-5-4) faced off in the semifinals in the first two seasons of the Big South's existence. Winthrop defeated the Highlanders 3-1 in 1984, but were taken down 2-1 the following year. One of the most thrilling postseason games for the Eagles came against Radford in 2002 as the Eagles rallied from a 3-2 second half deficit. Winthrop tied the match late in the second half after both teams went down a man when players were issued a second yellow, and Valli Arnason scored just over two minutes into overtime to put Winthrop into the championship match.

A victory for the Eagles would give them their ninth Big South Championship game appearance. In the last five appearances in the semifinals, Winthrop is 2-1-2 and the last two appearances both ended in penalties.

Senior Marc Segarra as seven goals on the year while junior Mason Lavallet six goals as his sixth helped Winthrop pull off the upset of third-seeded Liberty.

The Eagles have won four of their last five with the only loss coming to Radford in that stretch. Also, Winthrop is 0-3-1 in the last four meetings with the Highlanders.

Radford, after losing three straight, has won back-to-back games and shutting out both opponents in the process. The Highlanders have had an impressive record away from home this season, going 4-2-3 in away games and 2-0 on a neutral site for a 6-2-3 mark away from Cupp Stadium. In fact, four of the team's seven shutouts came away from Radford, VA.

Junior Bernardo Ulmo leads the Highlanders attack with 10 goals and three assists while Chel Ho Park Kim is second on the team with five goals and four assists. It was Joe Mayer that scored the game-winner against Gardner-Webb in the first round of the tournament on Tuesday.

Goals will be hard to come by for the Eagles as senior Ryan Taylor has been very tough this year posting a 0.94 goals against average and seven shutouts.

Radford is looking for its first trip to the Big South title game since the 2007 season, when it fell 2-1 to Liberty in the final. The Highlanders last won the conference tournament in 2000, which they were coincidently the #2 seed.
 
Winthrop vs. Radford in Big South Tournament
Nov. 15, 2002             Rock Hill, SC                    W, 4-3 (OT)
Nov. 15, 1985             Conway, SC                      L, 2-1                       
Nov. 9, 1984               Radford, VA                      W, 3-1