JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman women's soccer opens the 2023 season with a home matchup against North Greenville tomorrow afternoon at McCown field.
The match will be the first game played on the brand-new turf at McCown field.
"Just really excited to get started finally," Head coach Simon Duffy said. "It just coincides where we'll kick off on the new turf. We've been working hard. We'll continue to push and learn from these games coming up, but the fact that they are home games helps."
Duffy enters his seventh season leading the Eagles. Excluding the covid-shortened 2021 spring season, he has managed to lead his teams to nine wins or more each year and at least seven conference wins each of those five seasons as well.
He returns seven players that started ten games or more in 2022. Addie Henry (Chattanooga, Tenn.) and senior Abbie Zander (Baneberry, Tenn.) headline the strong group of returners. The duo tied for the team lead in assists with five last season. Henry pitched in with three goals and led the team in shots and shots on goal. Felicia Frick (Eschen, Liechtenstein), Savannah Fields (Johnson City, Tenn), Selina Jud(Wilderswil, Switzerland) and Maja Bengtsson (Malung, Sweden) all return after scoring multiple goals last season as well.
Carson-Newman is back in Mossy Creek to open the season after going on the road for two games to begin 2022.
This year's team can end a losing streak in season openers. C-N has failed to win its season opener for five straight seasons, the last season-opening victory coming in 2017 against Ferris State.
Despite the recent struggles in season openers, C-N has been tough to knock off at home. Under Duffy, the Eagles are 38-8-5 at McCown field and have only lost one home game each of the last three seasons.
North Greenville enters the 2023 season coming off its sixth straight winning season. The Crusaders ended the year with a 13-4-1 record, its most wins since it won 13 in 2009.
Similar to C-N, the Crusaders were just on the outside looking in at an NCAA tournament berth a season ago. This year's team has been picked to finish second in the Conference Carolinas.
NGU returns 11 players from its 2022 team. Aubrey Kramer is the top returning goal scorer, she scored four times and added one assist. She made 17 starts. Jada Patrick, Aleisha Lamb, Isabella Gyurich and Elainee Sprinkle all return after scoring multiple goals last season.
Samantha Montgomery returns in goal after making 17 starts in 2022. She recorded 7 shutouts and posted a 1.08 goals against average during the season.
"The two opponents we have opening weekend are fantastic, there is no other way to put it," Duffy said. "North Greenville is very formidable and finished second in their league with a ton of wins. Watched them the other day play. They are a really high-octane team, they'll press, they'll hurry, and they have really dangerous players at every position. They have speed and are very well organized, and they are going to play hard for 90 minutes."
The matchup with the Crusaders will be just the second all-time meeting and the first time NGU travels to Mossy Creek. NGU won the first meeting back on October 9th, 2019. A 79th minute goal gave the Crusaders the 1-0 victory, despite getting outshot by the Eagles 17-8.
Tomorrow's match kicks off at 4:00 p.m. from McCown field. The game can be streamed on FloSports with a subscription.
Fans can also follow along to @CN_Eagles on Twitter and Instagram for in-game updates.
