JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Looking for revenge after the Tusculum Pioneers ended their season in 2014, the 13th-ranked Carson-Newman men's soccer team (12-2-1, 7-2 SAC) travels to Pioneer Field for a South Atlantic Conference showdown with the Pioneers (8-5-1, 5-3-1 SAC) Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.
The Eagles are playing their second Tuesday contest of the year and are 1-0 in the rare mid-week tilts after recording a clean sheet against No. 16 Young Harris on Oct. 13th.
Carson-Newman has won its last six matches heading into the contest with one of the Eagles' biggest rivals, while Tusculum fell in overtime on Saturday night to Catawba, 2-1. The Pioneers are 3-2 in their last five contests with conference wins over Mars Hill, Lenoir-Rhyne and Brevard.
Andreas Kvam leads Tusculum with five goals on the seasno and his two assists are tied for the third-most by a Pioneer. Kvam's 12 points makes him the lone player in the Orange and Black to have a double-digit point output. Pablo Laguna has the second-most goals with three.
Preseason first-team All-SAC goalkeeper Jorge Alvarez has started 13 of the Pioneers' 14 contests and owns a 1.13 goals against average on the season. Alvarez started the SAC Tournament quarterfinals against the Eagles last season and made four saves and conceded just one goal in 90 minutes of play.
Three current Eagles have scored against the Pioneers. Seniors Sindre Welo (Trondheim, Norway) and Rurik Pereira (Rio da Janeiro, Brazil) and junior Marius Staalby (Trondheim, Norway) have all found the back of the net against Tusculum.
Carson-Newman is in search of its first undefeated record against Volunteer State opponents since 2010 when C-N went 4-0 against instate foes with two wins over King and a conference sweep of Tusculum and Lincoln Memorial. This year, the Eagles have already knocked off LMU and the Tornado.
Tusculum leads the series 15-11-4 and own a 6-4-1 record on its home turf. The last time to two teams met in Greeneviile, the Eagles picked up a 1-0 overtime win off a goal from Welo. Since 2012, three of the four meetings between the two sides have ended in extra time. The Eagles have recorded one win and the other two contests ended in a draw after 110 minutes of play.
Carson-Newman and Tusculum kick off at 5 p.m. on Tuesday evening; the Tusculum media relations will have a live stream of the contest at tusculumpioneers.com.
