ROCK HILL, SC—The Winthrop men's soccer team ended the regular season with a two-game win streak as it grabbed the fourth-seed for the Big South Conference Tournament and will host fifth-seeded Liberty on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 6 p.m.
Winthrop finished the regular season with a 12-4-1 mark overall and 6-2-1 in the league. It's the first 12-win season for the Eagles since 2008 and the first time since that same season they won six league games.
The Eagles are 25-21-5 all-time in the conference tournament and 16-7-2 in quarterfinal matchups. Liberty leads the all-time series 21-12-3 but the series is much closer in tournament play with the teams even in conference tournament play at 5-5-1.
The two teams met earlier this season in Rock Hill in the Eagles league-opener as they pulled off a 2-0 victory over the Flames. The Eagles scored two early second half goals and held on from there. Junior
Magnus Thorsson netted the game-winner in the 49
th minute that was quickly followed with a goal by freshman
Sam Schmidt. Both goals came off corner kicks.
Winthrop enters the game ranked fifth nationally and first in the Big South in scoring at 2.29 goals per game. The offense has seen 12 different players scored as sophomore
Max Hasenstab leads the team in scoring with 21 points (9g, 3a). Hasenstab, who missed the first meeting with Liberty, has missed five games total this year and has nine goals in 12 games played. He has scored a goal in four of the last five games and finished with seven goals in league play. Senior
Pol Sole is second on the team in scoring with 20 points (7g, 6a) while Thorsson is third with five goals and two assists.
Senior
Guilherme Avelar was in net for the Eagles in the win over Liberty on Sept. 27 and made five saves to earn the shutout but junior
Fabian Broich is likely to be in goal as he's started the last two games and has only allowed a goal in the last 238 minutes and 13 seconds and two goals in his last 328:13. Broich is 4-1 with a 0.53 goals against average.
Liberty enters the game with an overall record of 11-5-1 and a league mark of 6-3. The Flames are coming off a 1-0 victory in double-overtime against High Point in their regular season finale Saturday afternoon.
In the first meeting, the Flames were ranked sixth nationally in scoring at 2.71 goals per game but even though that number has dropped to 1.71 it hasn't made too much of a difference as they continue to win. Liberty has won three straight and five of the last six games and is a good road team at 4-2.
Sachem Wilson leads the offense with 15 points (7g, 1a) and netted the golden goal in the win over High Point. Tim Harbison is second on the team with four goals while seven other players have two goals.
Senior Scott Sutarik has been in goal 16-of-17 games for Liberty and is 11-4-1 with a goals against average of just under 1.000 and recorded his sixth shutout of the season against the Panthers.
Since the new tournament format in 2012, this will be the first time the Eagles have hosted a first round conference tournament game. The last time the Eagles hosted a conference tournament game was in 2007 as it lost 1-0 in double-overtime to Liberty.
Admission will be $5 for the general public, $3 for seniors over 55 and children under 12 while students from all schools as well as Winthrop employees can purchase tickets for $2. Please call the ticket office at (803) 323-2345 for more information or to purchase tickets. The tickets will also be sold on the day of the game.
Quarterfinals (Campus Sites), Tuesday, Nov. 11Match 1: #8 Campbell at #1 Radford – 6:00pm
Match 2: #5 Liberty at #4 Winthrop – 6:00pm
Match 3: #7 Longwood at #2 Coastal Carolina – 6:00pm
Match 4: #6 UNC Asheville at #3 High Point – 7:00pm
Semifinals (Bryan Park – Greensboro, N.C.) – Friday, Nov. 14Match 5: #1/8 winner vs. #4/5 winner – 4:00pm
Match 6: #2/7 winner vs. #3/6 winner – 7:00pm
Final (Bryan Park – Greensboro, N.C.) – Sunday, Nov. 16Match 7 – Match 5 winner vs. Match 6 winner – 2:00pm (ESPN3)
