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ROCK HILL, SC- The Winthrop women's soccer team could move into third place in the the Big South rankings by knocking off Liberty University Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. at Eagle Field. The series between these teams is currently tied at 5-5-2.
The Lady Eagles (10-3-1, 6-2 Big South) head into Wednesday's match looking to continue the offensive magic that has been produced this season, sparked by the 15 goals scored by junior
Krystyna Freda. Freda scored two in Saturday's 3-1 defeat of Campbell and earned her College Soccer Madness' Big South Player of the Week honors. The goals also marked the 18
th career game winning goal for Freda, which breaks the previous Big South record of 17. Sophomore
Taylor Coleman has added six goals of her own to the 36 the Lady Eagles have scored so far this year, earning a scoring offense ranking of 8
th in the nation. On defense, senior
Megan Pritts has cemented her place as a center back and commands a backline that has 4
th best goals against average in the conference with 1.13.
Amelia Henderson, the redshirt sophomore goalkeeper continues to make crucial plays and has been awarded the conference's Defensive Player of the Week honors twice this season.
Liberty's (11-4-1, 6-1-1 Big South) defense will be a tough test for Winthrop, earning 10 shutouts in 16 games, a school record, and leads the conference in goals against only allowing 9 goals for an average of .54. Goalkeeper Holly Van Noord has played every minute for the Lady Flames in her first year as the starter and her 60 saves have assisted in making the Liberty defense so effective. Liberty has had twelve different goal scorers so far this season but sophomores Brittany Aanderud and Crystal Elmers lead the team with five each.
The head coach of the Lady Flames is Jessica Hain who is currently in her sixth season with Liberty and has an overall record of 51-48-15 and won the 2009 won the Big South Coach of the Year Award when her team won the Big South regular season title.
