JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – After their longest road trip thus far on the season to Coker, resulting in a 3-1 victory, the Eagles are packing up once again Wednesday for a road contest against Mars Hill.
"Another tricky fixture," head coach Simon Duffy said. "It was a tough one away to Coker and just playing on turf again, and I think temperatures will be a lot different…We need to put a performance in, our girls are well-aware of it and hopefully they will be fully focused and ready to go."
In Saturday's contest against Coker, C-N utilized all 21 players that made the trip in some capacity. All players earned playing time, with freshman Chiara Michieletto (Como, Italy) and sophomore defense Sydney Bailey (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Lainee Griffin (Knoxville, Tenn.) all receiving their first career starts as Eagles.
"We had a lot of players that jumped in and played and a lot of players who played in different positions," Duffy said. "I think that will spur the team on a bit and hopefully get us ready going forward into this big match tomorrow."
Scoring three goals for the fourth time this season, C-N matched its single-game high once more against Coker, having previously scored three goals in wins over Belmont Abbey, Young Harris and Queens. 75 percent (12 goals) of the season's 16 overall goals have been scored across four games in the 11 played in the 2019 season. In all four losses, C-N has been shut out, leaving the remaining four goals scored across wins over Newberry, Anderson and Lincoln Memorial.
With sole possession of third place in the South Atlantic Conference, the Eagles (7-4, 5-1 SAC) will look to keep pace with the top of the table in Lenoir-Rhyne and Wingate by winning the games they need to.
"We're going to have to make sure that we're at our best," Duffy said. "But, no doubt in my mind, to keep pace with the Wingate's and the Lenoir-Rhyne's that are with us at the top and some other teams that are just below us, we have to make sure that we can't let anything slip."
Mars Hill is a team that, like Coker on Saturday, has seen its fair share of struggles in recent times, respectively. The Lions (1-9-1, 1-5 SAC) have not posted a winning record since 2010, and are 7-33-2 dating back to the beginning of the 2017 season. They are 4-21 in SAC play in that time span.
Offensively, the Lions are led by sophomore forward Sanne Martinsen, who has scored six goals and added a lone assist for Mars Hill for a total of 13 points. Named player of the week on Oct. 1 alongside C-N goalie Jasmine Rizk (Andersonville, Tenn.), Martinsen scored the game-winning goal in a 4-1 victory against Coker on Sept. 29 that serves as the Lions' sole win on the 2019 campaign. Martinsen has started in all 11 games this year for the Lions, one of five people on her team to do so.
Mars Hill's 10 goals scored on the season ranks as the second-fewest in the SAC. Its 29 goals allowed are the second-most in the conference overall, respectively.
Head coach Jamey Newsome is in his third year with Lions. An alumnus of the school, he has compiled a 7-33-2 record with the team and is 49-61-7 overall as a head coach with a previous stop at Auburn University at Montgomery.
C-N has won the last 11 meetings against Mars Hill, with the last loss against the Lions coming in 2007, a season that saw the Eagles go 14-6 overall with an away defeat at Mars Hill by a 3-2 final.
