JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The 9th-ranked Carson-Newman women's soccer team jumps back into South Atlantic Conference action when they hit the road to take on the Anderson Trojans on Saturday, Sept. 30.
The Eagles come off a 2-1 victory over Peach Belt Conference opponent Clayton State, when the two teams met in Chattanooga on Wednesday.
"It was an unusual game for us, the attitude was good but the energy wasn't there," remarked head coach Simon Duffy. "The atmosphere was quite different for a neutral site game, it was very stale and dead and we found it hard to get going. But maybe we can use that and step it up a gear in carrying it over to our game against Anderson."
The Eagles (7-0-1, 3-0-1 SAC) ride into Anderson, S.C. with a three-game winning streak vs. the Trojans (2-4-1, 1-2 SAC). Two of those three wins came in 2016 after the teams met again in the SAC Tournament Semifinals. C-N defeated Anderson 363 days ago when the teams would need overtime before Alex Brandan sent home the game winner in the 94th minute. The Eagles saw the Trojans just a month later in the conference semifinals, making a statement in a 5-0 victory en route to the league title two days later.
The Trojans are led by junior Lauren Allan who has recorded two goals and five points so far in the 2017 campaign, but her team has tallied only five goals in its seven games. Junior goalkeeper Abby Helm will require some solving, as she sits with a .86 goals against average on the season.
Anderson's lone win on the season comes against the Coker Cobras, as they currently sit at seventh in the league standings. The Trojans were selected to finish sixth in the conference in the preseason polls.
Carson-Newman holds the top three point leaders in all of the SAC with senior forward Lauren Wade leading the way with 15. Holly Talbut-Smith checks in at No. 2 with 13 points, and fellow junior Magda Mosengo has 12.
"We do a lot of training with moving the ball quickly and player movement off the ball," explained Duffy. "Wade does so well at thinking two, three steps ahead and her best is yet to come. Those three do a lot of work on and off the field, and delighted to see their success so far."
2017 marks the fourth time in program history that the team has remained unbeaten through the first eight games of the season. The series between the two sides currently favors the Eagles at 8-7-1, however, the team holds just a 2-4-1 record when traveling to South Carolina to face the Trojans.
"Hopefully we can push on now, it's crazy to think we are already halfway through the season," added Duffy. "We hit a crucial stretch here over our next five games, so we really have to refocus and push through starting on Saturday."
Game time at Trojan Stadium is set for 5:00 p.m.
