Tuesday, September 27, 2011

• Conference play opened last week and through the first set of games Belmont, FGCU and Jacksonville sit atop the standings. The Bruins lead the way with six points after road wins against Kennesaw State and Mercer, while the Eagles and Dolphins both picked up a win before drawing against one another on Sunday. ETSU joins Belmont with a perfect record after defeating USC Upstate in the A-Sun opener.

• FGCU, the defending A-Sun Regular Season Champions, continued its undefeated streak against A-Sun competition in the opening week of play. The Eagles are 12-0-3 in their past 15 A-Sun games, which dates back to the Oct. 18, 2009. Over that span, FGCU owns the most wins just ahead of Jacksonville (11) and Mercer (10).

• Mercer's Olivia Tucker, the active A-Sun leader in points, moved up another rung in the Bears' record books this past weekend as she climbed up to third all-time in program history for goals with 30. She passed Nancy Fallin (1991-94) and also put herself into a tie for fourth for career points at 66 with Nicole Vogel (1990-92).

A-Sun Active Career Points Leaders
Rank	Player (Team)	Points	Goals	Assists
1.	Olivia Tucker (Mercer)	66	30	6
2.	Liz Fink (Jacksonville)	47	16	15
3.	Brittany Vining (Kennesaw State)	42	12	18
4.	Alyssa Mahan (Kennesaw State)	40	10	20
T5.	Emerald Phillips (Mercer)	31	11	9
T5.	Jessica Hurtado (Jacksonville)	31	8	15

• With a whole month of matches remaining, two conference teams have already surpassed their 2010 goal totals, while two others need one more to equal last year. ETSU, the 17th-best scoring offense in the nation, leads the charge with 25 goals this year - two more than its 2010 total. USC Upstate has tallied 10 goals this year, which is four more than in 2010, while Kennesaw State and Lipscomb are both one goal away matching last year's total.

• Kennesaw State's Katrina Frost tallied two goals in the first weekend of conference play to push her season total to 10, which currently leads the A-Sun and ranks the freshman 10th in the nation for goals per game and total goals. Frost is the fifth A-Sun freshman in the past four seasons to record at least 10 goals. FGCU's Lindsay Haw registered 11 in 2007.

• So far this season, five A-Sun goalkeepers have recorded at least three shutouts including; FGCU's Stephanie Powers (5), ETSU's Caitlin Gaughan (4), Jacksonville's Sarah Sierra (4), Kennesaw State's Mel Hutto (3) and North Florida's Megan Dorsey (3). Last season, only four keepers recorded five or more shutouts in the season. Powers tied for the league lead last year in shutouts with nine and she currently sits in fifth place in A-Sun history with 24 career shutouts and needs only one more to tie for second.

• This weekend, Belmont and Lipscomb play host to ETSU and USC Upstate in Nashville, while Mercer and Kennesaw State travel down to the River City to face Jacksonville and North Florida. FGCU takes its undefeated streak to DeLand on Saturday to face Stetson in the lone conference match of the week for the two teams.

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