ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop men's soccer will be back in action this weekend as it head to Greenville, SC for the Diadora/Spinx Gray Griffin Memorial Tournament hosted by Furman University.
Winthrop will open up against College of Charleston on Friday, Sept. 3 at 5 p.m. The Eagles will then take on the host Paladins on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
After opening the season with a victory over Brevard College the Eagles fell 3-0 to Wofford College two days later despite a 24-10 advantage in shots. The Eagles finished with 12 shots on goal, but were unable to find the back of the net thanks to 10 saves from Garrett Closs and two team saves by Wofford defenders.
Winthrop hopes to bounce back against a College of Charleston team that is off to a 1-1 start as well. The Cougars opened the season with a 3-1 win over Seton Hall and then dropped a road game at North Carolina State, 2-0. In the win over Seton Hall, Nico Rittmeyer netted two goals to lead the Cougars. Alex Young has seen action in the goal for both games as he's 1-1 with a 1.50 goals against average.
Furman is off to an 0-1-1 start with a 2-1 neutral site loss to North Carolina State and a 1-1 tie with Seton Hall. Eli Pinner and Lewis Hawke each have one goal for the Paladins, who began the season 29
th in the College Soccer News Top 30. Furman is led in goal by preseason All-America selection Sven Lissek, who has yielded a goal in each of the first two games. In 2014 he was 11-5-5 with a 0.59 goals against average as Furman only allowed 14 goals in 22 games.
This will mark the 26
th meeting between Winthrop and College of Charleston. During Winthrop head coach
Rich Posipanko's tenure he is 3-8 against the Cougars as they also lead the all-time series 18-7. This matchup features two of the Top 7 active coaches for career wins as College of Charleston's Ralph Lundy (40
th season) has 426 and Posipanko (37
th season) has 382. Furman's Doug Allison is in the Top 30 with 259 career wins as he's in his 21
st season. The Eagles are 0-6 all-time against Furman with the last meeting coming in 2011 in Greenville with a 2-0 loss.
