Friday, October 29, 2010

MACON, Ga. – Atlantic Sun Conference Championship play begins in women’s soccer with two first-round matches on Saturday. UNF makes its first appearance in the championship, hosting Stetson, while defending champion Kennesaw State hosts ETSU. Both matches begin at 7 p.m. and air on ASun.TV.

Picked ninth in the preseason coaches’ poll, UNF used a youth movement to qualify for the A-Sun Championship for the first time. A pair of freshmen, A-Sun Freshman of the Year Carolina Lencina and conference goal-scoring leader Lauren Hopfensperger, paced the Osprey offense. The duo scored 16 of UNF’s 27 goals during the regular season, but when action turned to A-Sun play, one or the other scored all but three of Ospreys’ 16 goals. The two first-year forwards each earned spots on the All-Freshman team by unanimous votes of the coaches and also landed on the All-Atlantic Sun First Team.

The third-seeded Ospreys host the sixth-seeded Stetson Hatters, a team making their eighth-straight trip to the A-Sun Championship. Midfielder Tessa Gavilsky earned First-Team All-Atlantic Sun honors for a third-consecutive season. She enters the A-Sun Championship atop the conference’s statistical charts in points, 23, and assists, nine. Stetson heads into the A-Sun Championship boasting one of the top offenses in the league. The Hatters rank second in scoring with 90 points, as well as in goals scored, 28. They lead the A-Sun in assists with 34.

When the two met during the regular season, Lencina tallied the lone goal of the match, scoring 45 seconds into the second half. UNF owns a 4-2 lead in the all-time series, one that began in 2005 when the Ospreys joined the A-Sun.

Saturday’s other first-round contest features the fourth-seeded Kennesaw State, who begins its run for a third title in the last four seasons, welcoming in ETSU to the KSU Soccer Stadium. The Owls had hosted the previous four A-Sun Championships, winning in 2007 and last year. During that span, the Owls posted a 4-1-1 record in A-Sun Championship play. Kennesaw State placed three on the All-Atlantic Sun Second Team in juniors Brittany Vining and Alyssa Mahan and freshman Alma Gardarsdottir.

ETSU returns to the A-Sun Championship after a one-year absence as the fifth seed. The Buccaneers became the final team to make the squad after winning an overtime contest with USC Upstate on Sunday. In four previous appearances in the championship, ETSU had advanced to the semifinals only once, 2007. That season came to an end with a loss to Kennesaw State, the only meeting between the two in A-Sun Championship play.

The Owls and Buccaneers met on October 17, also in Kennesaw, Ga. ETSU grabbed the early lead only to see Gardarsdottir tie the match on a penalty kick in the 86th minute. The match ended in a 1-1 draw. In four all-time meetings in Kennesaw, the Owls own a 3-0-1 advantage.

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The Atlantic Sun Conference is an 11-member league committed to Building Winners for Life. The A-Sun stands for achievement with integrity in both the academic and athletic arenas, with a focus on the balance between the two for our student-athletes. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun boasts five of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun includes a blend of the most prestigious and dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University