Eagles Dance, men’s soccer moves on to NCAA Division II Men’s Soccer Championships

Eagles Dance, men’s soccer moves on to NCAA Division II Men’s Soccer Championships

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman men's soccer has been selected to advance to the NCAA DII National Tournament and look to face fellow SAC member Anderson, the no. 5 seed. The fourth-seeded Eagles will take on the Trojans Thursday afternoon at 1 in Gaffney, S.C. at Saints Field.

"Anything less than a bid to the national tournament would be an underachievement for this team," Carson-Newman head soccer coach Richard Moodie said. "We are ecstatic to be in the regional rankings and be the fourth ranked team."

This is the first time Carson-Newman has made it to the national tournament in four years. In 2009, the Eagles defeated Lander in the first round 2-0, but fell to Anderson 2-1 in round two to finish a stretch of seven consecutive years where the Eagles made the NCAA Tournament.

The Eagles are currently ranked 4th in the region. They went on a seven game winning streak to close out the regular season. However, they fell 1-0 to Mars Hill in the first round of the conference tournament.

"The boys have too much talent for the season to end how it did," Moodie said. "Hopefully they learned a lesson about the loss in the conference tournament against Mars Hill."

C-N's Ross Frame (Welshpool, Powys, United Kingdom) was voted SAC Player of the Year. He ended regular season leading the conference with 39 points, 15 goals and nine assists. He won SAC Player of the Week three times making him the first C-N men's soccer player to be awarded the honors since 2010.

"It's time for us to refocus," Moodie said, "roll up our sleeves, and get to work."

Frame, Sindre Welo (Trondheim, Norway) and Rumwald Le Guevel (Vannes, France) were all named to the All-Conference first team. Defenders Matheus Bachi (Caxias do Sul, Brazil), Christopher Trejo (Guatemala City, Guatemala) and Rurik Pereira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) were all voted All-Conference honorable mention.

Le Guevel ended regular season second in the conference in both saves and save percentage with 74 and .787 respectively. Welo still holds the no. 5 spot in the SAC with six assists.

"I'm excited and proud of my team," Moodie said. "We have a fantastic team going into this thing; we're ready to go."

The Eagles take on Anderson in the first round match of the national tournament Thursday at 1 p.m. Limestone College, no. 1 in the region, is the site host and will face the winner of that game Saturday at 1 p.m. Both matches can be followed live at http://www.sidearmstats.com/limestone/msoc/.