Date Posted: 11/5/2007

MACON, Ga. – The 14th Atlantic Sun Women’s Soccer Championship kicks off on Wednesday in Kennesaw, Ga. The host Owls again earned the top seed, the defending champions Jacksonville snuck into the field as the No. 6 seed and Belmont made its first-ever appearance at the Championship as the No. 3 seed.

Kennesaw State won its second straight outright regular-season title with an A-Sun mark of 10-1. The Owls became to first team in league history to win consecutive, outright regular-season titles since the league reverted back to one division in 1998. In addition to defending its title, the Owls became the just the third team in league history to win 10 conference games. In 2001, UCF and FAU each went 10-1. Over its three years in the league, Kennesaw State has put together an outstanding record of 26-3-1 in A-Sun play. The correlating win percentage of 88.3 Pct represents the highest conference win percentage over a three-year span since UCF went 28-3 from 2001-03, winning at a 90.3 percent clip.

As the regular-season champ, the Owls earned the top seed in the Championship. They will attempt to forget what occurred in 2006 when as the top seed, the fifth-seeded Jacksonville Dolphins stunned the Owls in the semifinals. It marked the first time in the eight championships not involving divisional seeding that the top seed failed the reach the final. Prior to 2006, the No.1 seed had won all seven of its semifinal matches and no No. 1 seed had lost to a seed higher than third. Working in Kennesaw State’s favor, however, is that in last eight championships, the No. 1 seed had claimed six titles.

Also working in their favor is their juggernaut offense. The Owls scored a league-high 32 goals in conference play, led by All-Conference candidates Annie Phillips and Caitlin Dingle. They scored 23 of the team’s 32 goals in A-Sun play. The duo recorded the only three hat tricks in conference play with Dingle recording a pair.

Kennesaw State’s in-state rival Mercer claimed the No. 2 seed and the other bye into the semifinals. The Bears lost their opening and closing A-Sun match, but in between, won nine straight league matches to enter their A-Sun finale with a chance to win their first regular-season title. Kennesaw State dashed their title hopes, but the Bears still enter the Championship having already established a school-record for wins in a season with 11. The previous record of 10 wins had held since 1992.

The coaches picked the Bears 5th in their preseason poll, perhaps relying on the fact that the Bears had won just 11 games total in 2005 and 2006 along with a combined eight A-Sun wins. The Bears turned to their youth to spearhead the turnaround. Sophomore goalkeeper Jean Worts sported a goals-against average of 1.08 with six shutouts. Worts played in all but 14 of the Bears’ 1684 minutes. Freshman defender Kacie Hudson led the squad with five goals and 12 points. While Hudson didn’t score many, when she did, she made them count. Four of the five goals were of the game-winning variety. Without even playing a match, the Bears have already matched their best showing in the Atlantic Sun Women’s Championship. In the inaugural Championship in 1994, the Bears reached the semifinals.

The opening match of the Championship features the defending champions, the Jacksonville Dolphins, opposing a school that has never experienced the Championship setting, the Belmont Bruins. Belmont, picked to finish in a tie for eighth in the preseason poll earned its first spot in the field with a 6-4-1 record and a tie for fourth in the conference. In their previous six years, the Bruins had never finished with a winning record in league play nor had they finished higher than eighth in the standings. Senior goalkeeper Micaela Crowley led the breakthrough with six shutouts and a 0.81 goals-against average. She won a pair of defensive Player-of-the-Week awards during the season. On the offensive side, a freshman, Erica Carter led the squad with seven goals and 17 points.

Belmont will enter the Championship as the No. 3 seed, but recent history does not favor the Bruins. The last three schools to make its Championship debut (Gardner-Webb in 2003, ETSU in 2005 and Kennesaw State in 2006) all lost its first Championship match. The last time a school won at least once in its first Championship appearance occurred in 1998 when Jacksonville won a pair of games before losing to UCF, 2-0, in the final.

The Bruins will face the defending champions, the Jacksonville Dolphins. The Dolphins enter the 2007 Championship as the No. 6 seed, one spot lower that where they won from in 2006. As the No. 5 seed, the Dolphins upset ETSU in penalty kicks in the first round then pulled off the major shocker, taking down host and top-seeded Kennesaw State in the semifinals. In the championship, Keri Zwikker scored the only goal of the match as the Dolphins defeated Stetson to win their second championship. They also won in 2000.

This season, the Dolphins went 5-5-1 in league play with Zwikker leading the offensive charge. The preseason Player of the Year shared the league lead with 16 goals and 37 points. They Dolphins will attempt to join UCF as just the second school to successfully defend the Atlantic Sun Championship. UCF won three straight Championships from 1994 to 1996 and then won back-to-back titles in 1998 and 1999. After a year absence, the Knights again won three straight from 2001-03. The Knights and Dolphins can claim the honor as the only two teams in league history to win multiple Championships. Only the Dolphins, among current A-Sun institutions, have won an A-Sun Women’s Soccer Championship. When they met in the regular season, the Bruins and Dolphins dueled to a scoreless tie on October 26.

In the second quarterfinal match, ETSU, the No. 4 seed, will battle Stetson, the No. 5 seed. These two met in the final week of the season with ETSU edging out a 3-2 victory in overtime. Stetson earned the final berth into the Championship on the latest date possible. In the final conference game of the season, the Hatters needed at least a draw against Florida Gulf Coast to make the field of six. With a loss, Gardner-Webb would have been in the Championship because they owned the head-to-head tie-breaker. Sarah Stock scored the game-winning goal less than two minutes into overtime to send the Hatters to the Championship. After an 0-3 start in A-Sun play, the Hatters won six of their final eight conference matches.

ETSU also started 0-3 in A-Sun play and faced the challenge of having to replace starting goalkeeper Erin Bilyeu. She went down with an injury following a 2-0 win against Lipscomb on October 7. In her place, freshman forward Rachel Van Horn moved into net and helped lead the turnaround. She started the final seven games and recorded a 5-1-1 record with two shutouts. Included among her victories, a 3-1 win against Kennesaw State, the only conference loss dealt to the Owls. Jordan Monty and Terri Miller picked up their effort as Bilyeu recovered, combining to score 10 of the Buccaneers 16 goals in those final seven games.

The Atlantic Sun Conference is a 12-member league committed to Building Winners for Life, with a focus on academic and athletic integrity and a balance between the two for the student-athlete, and maintaining a high level of sportsmanship. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun encompasses six of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun consists of some of the most dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Gardner-Webb University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.

Related Links:
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