Sunday, November 13, 2011

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - Top-seeded FGCU and No. 6 ETSU are set for play on Sunday at 1 p.m. for the 2011 Atlantic Sun Men's Soccer Championship title. The Eagles are looking for the program's first title in their first appearance in the A-Sun Championship, while ETSU is hoping to become the first back-to-back champions since 2004.

The Buccaneers won the regular-season battle on Oct. 16th, 2-1, to become the only team to defeat FGCU in conference play in the past two seasons. FGCU has claimed the last two A-Sun Regular Season Titles.

The Championship Final will be broadcasted for free on ASun.TV.

FGCU Championship Final Notes
• The last team to win the title in their first appearance was Gardner-Webb in 2006. #2 GWU 2, #1 Stetson 1 - OT
• The last regular-season champion to win the conference championship was UCF in 2004, when they split the season title.
• Since 2000, top-seeds are 4-4-1 in the championship final, but are 1-3-1 since 2005. All four loses came against two-seeds.
• The last program to win the women’s and men’s soccer titles in the same season was UCF in 2003.
• A Florida school has won six of the past nine A-Sun Championships.
• The Eagles have scored at least two goals in the past six contests. They are 9-1 this season when reaching that mark and 2-4-2 when scoring 0-1 goals.
• Senior goalkeeper Adam Glick ranks 17th in A-Sun history for career saves (260) and third in career shutouts (19).
• FGCU and ETSU are tied in the series history at 2-2. The Eagles own the scoring advantage at 9-5.

ETSU Championship Final Notes
• This marks the first time the six-seed has reached the A-Sun Championship Final. The six-seed is 3-11-1 all-time in the tournament. The previous lowest seed to reach fi nal was #5 Mercer and #5 FAU (2009; 1999).
• No team has ever won back-to-back title on their home pitch. College of Charleston won three-straight titles from 1994-96; two of which came in Charleston, S.C.
• A-Sun teams are 12-6 all-time in championship finals on their home field, but have lost in the last three occurrences (2004, 06, 08). The last host school to win was Mercer in 2001.
• Under the current format, no team has ever won three-straight matches to claim A-Sun title. Campbell won in 2007 with a 2-0-1 record. The last team to win three games was Centenary in 1988.
• David Geno and David Haba both tied the A-Sun Championship record for goals in a game with two. They are tied with 15 other occurrences.
• No team has ever won the A-Sun title after allowing three goals in the semifinals.
• ETSU is the only A-Sun team in the last two seasons to defeat FGCU.

Follow the Atlantic Sun on Twitter and become a fan on  Facebook.