VIDEO: Simon Duffy Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – With the women's soccer season beginning in two months, Carson-Newman coach Simon Duffy has unveiled the 16-game slate his team will face in his third season at the helm of the program.
The reigning South Atlantic Conference regular season champions will evenly split playing time on the road and at McCown Field with eight matches each. Seven of the first nine games the Eagles play will keep them on the banks of Mossy Creek.
Duffy's group will start the year off against a trio of nonconference opponents, starting with the first-ever meeting with Bellarmine on Sept. 5 in Louisville, Ky, making the second-straight season the Eagles have started the year away from home. The Knights had a strong 2018 season with an 11-6-3 record and were the runners-up in the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament after entering as the fifth-seed.
"As funny as it may sound, we like to get our freshmen, our new players used to traveling, as well, on the bus, what it's like and being comfortable with being uncomfortable, you know," Duffy said. "We could be delayed, we could have a bad locker room. Whatever it is, we need to be ready for that."
C-N takes on a five-game home stretch starting Sept. 8 with Young Harris and Lee on Sept. 13 to continue nonconference action. The Eagles took down Lee in overtime at its home field early last season, but the Flames won the South Region and made an appearance in the Final Four. They fell to top-seeded Grand Valley State to close the season.
SAC play opens on September 18 when Lincoln Memorial enters McCown Field on September 18. The Eagles and Railsplitters faced-off three times last year. C-N was victorious in the regular season with a 5-2 win at Harrogate but LMU took the SAC Championship game and NCAA Southeast Regional semifinal.
"We look at conferences in the country, we look at regions in the country and I think, arguably, we have one of the toughest regions in the country," Duffy said. "And I think the SAC is definitely starting to gain a bit of attention. Not that it was viewed upon in a negative way at all, but I think with the addition of Limestone next year, and how well LMU has done, Lenoir-Rhyne were right there, I think Wingate is under new leadership now as well, so I can just see the SAC being even tougher this coming year and we need to kind of be the best versions of ourselves. We need to be up for it and I think the girls are hungry."
Newberry and Belmont Abbey visit McCown Field before the Eagles hit the road to Anderson to close out September. After that, they head back home for a pair of SAC matches. C-N hosts Lenoir-Rhyne at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 2 for its latest nightcap of the regular season before Queens heads to town on Oct. 5.
Of the final seven games of the season, six will take the Eagles away from Jefferson City. A five-match road stint starts on Oct. 9 with a trip to North Greenville, the first meeting with the Crusaders in program history. They entered the Conference Carolinas tournament as the No. 2 seed but fell to Barton in the opening round, 2-1.
The next four road trips the Eagles embark on will take them to Coker, Mars Hill, Limestone, a group that will join the conference in 2020, and Catawba. Catawba and C-N met three times last season – once in the regular season and twice in postseason play – with the Orange and Blue winning each time.
Senior Night on Nov. 2 will bring Wingate to McCown Field for the final home game of the season. Carson-Newman used a 3-0 victory at Wingate last year to win its fourth-straight SAC regular-season title.
The regular season comes to a close on Nov. 6 with a short trip to Tusculum. SAC Championship quarterfinals start on Nov. 9 with the higher seed hosting those matchups. The semifinal and finals will take place at the Mecklenburg County Sportsplex at Matthews in Matthews, N.C. beginning Nov. 15.
Each home game will be streamed courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network at cneagles.com/live. Additional coverage and news will be provided on Twitter via @CNathletics and @CNWSoccer.
