SoCon Championship Central | SoCon Tournament Bracket
ELON, N.C. – The Elon University men's soccer team will host Appalachian State on Saturday, Nov. 9, in the opening round of the 2013 Southern Conference Men's Soccer Tournament Championships. The second-seeded Phoenix and the seventh-seeded Mountaineers are slated for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Rudd Field.
Phoenix All-Access
The quarterfinal match will be streamed live online free of charge through Elon's new broadband channel, Phoenix All-Access. The channel offers fans exclusive high definition (HD) Elon Athletics video content and gives Phoenix fans anywhere in the world the opportunity to stay in touch with Elon Athletics.
Follow the Phoenix
In addition, fans can follow the match through live stats from elonphoenix.com on the men's soccer schedule page. Live updates will also be provided on Twitter at the handle
@ElonScores and
@ElonMensSoccer.
Defending Champions
The Phoenix enters this weekend as the two-time defending SoCon Tournament champions. Elon claimed the 2011 title as the No. 6 seed with a 3-2 victory over UNCG in the championship match and earned its first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament. Last year as the No. 1 seed, Elon went back-to-back with a 2-1 defeat over Wofford in the championship game. The win gave the Phoenix its first sweep of the SoCon Tournament and regular-season titles in the same season.
Series History
The Phoenix and the Mountaineers will meet for the 17
th time overall and the second time this season on Saturday in a series dating back to 1997. Both teams are deadlocked at 7-7-2 all-time, but Elon has won the past two contests, including a 1-0 victory on Oct. 5, earlier in the season behind a first-half goal by sophomore
James Brace.
Last Time Out
Elon rallied from a 3-1 second-half deficit to earn a 4-3 victory at home against local rival UNCG last Saturday, Nov. 2, in the Phoenix's regular-season finale. Junior
Jason Waterman scored two second-half goals, including the game-winner in the 87
th minute, to give the Phoenix its third straight win overall and six out of its last seven against the Spartans.
Scouting Elon
Elon (13-4-1) enters Saturday's match currently ranked No. 20 by
College Soccer America and No. 21 in the
College Soccer News poll. The Phoenix was also receiving votes in the latest National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) poll.
Waterman leads the Phoenix with 25 points, tied for the most in the conference. Brace currently sits third in the league with 20 points despite starting only seven matches on the year. The duo is among the top scoring tandems in the league as they ranked in the top three in points, goals, points per game and goals per game.
The 13 regular-season wins for the Phoenix are the most for the program at the Division I era and is three shy of the all-time single-season record of 16 set in 1987. Head coach
Darren Powell can also tie Steve Ballard's (1978-87) career program record of 93 wins with a victory on Saturday.
Scouting Appalachian State
The Mountaineers (4-7-6) earned a 2-1 victory over Longwood on Tuesday, Nov. 5, in its most recent contest and snapped a four-match losing streak.
On the year, the Appalachian State is averaging 1.41 goals per match with 10 players scoring at least one goal this season. Junior forward Stanley Broaden paces the squad with five scores and also has a team-best 14 points. Sophomore midfielder Alex Herbst is tied with Broaden for the team-lead in assists with four.
In goal, senior Danny Free ranks third in the conference in saves (65) and saves per game (3.82) while playing every minute between the posts this season.
On the Horizon
With a win on Saturday, the Phoenix's next contest will be against the winner of the UNCG-Georgia Southern match on Friday, Nov. 15, in the semifinal round. That match and the remainder of the tournament will be played in Greenville, S.C.
-- ELON --
