JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman women's soccer team is Florida bound for its season opener against Tampa tomorrow afternoon.
Last season, the Eagles finished 6-7-4 overall and 4-4-3 in the conference.
"We've told the kids that it's not how you start," Carson-Newman men's soccer coach Richard Moodie said, "it's how you finish. And we finished pretty strongly in the spring season."
Tampa finished 15-4-2 last season and advanced to the NCAA Southeast Region second round match.
"This weekend," Coach Moodie said, "we're playing against arguably two of the top teams in the nation. We just want to benchmark where we are."
At the Columbus State tournament, the Spartans defeated both Tusculum and no. 15 Lenoir-Rhyne 2-0.
C-N lost 2-0 at Tusculum last fall. At home, the Eagles fell 3-2 to L-R with one point supplied by Mikayla Gregg (Newport, Tenn.) and a last minute goal from then freshman Gabrielle Gianeselli (Knoxville, Tenn.).
"We've had two major years of improvement in the program," Coach Moodie said. "We'd like to start seeing some of that success and hopefully our philosophy starts coming out on the field."
Eighteen new players have been added to this year's Eagle squad.
The Eagles kick off against the Spartans tomorrow at 5 p.m. The match can be followed live at http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statbroadcast.php?gid=tamp&t=1.
