JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – For the first time in seven years, Carson-Newman (1-1) will match up against the King Tornado (0-1) in a non-conference match Wednesday evening at 5:00 p.m. at McCown Field.
Carson-Newman's win on Saturday versus Union marks the third straight season that the Eagles have won their home opener. In all three wins, Carson-Newman has scored at least four goals.
Four different players contributed to the scoring. Krista Nielsen scored her fourth career goal, Annika Fend and Karli Pettitt scored their second career goals and Anita Arnadottir scored her first in her C-N career. Meanwhile, Alayna Corbitt and Irish Miles each recorded their first career assist, with Miles having two in the match.
Carson-Newman has been very successful against King since the two programs began meeting in 2000. In all 13 meetings with King, C-N has scored multiple goals, including 11 games with three goals or more. Carson-Newman has outscored the Tornado 49-5 all-time.
Over the two programs' last four meetings, the Eagles have outscored the Tornado 14-0. King's last goal in a game against Carson-Newman was in 2013.
Wednesday's matchup will be the first since Simon Duffy's first season in Mossy Creek in 2017. His Eagles were victorious over his former club 5-0 on October 25th.
Winning its home opener for the third straight season on Saturday, C-N will attempt to do something it has not done since 2018, win its first two home games of the season. The Eagles have only done so twice under Duffy, in his first two years, 2017 and 2018.
With four different players scoring in Saturday's 4-1 win versus Union, C-N is now 66-2-3 when scoring two goals or more. Under Duffy, the Eagles are 31-1-2 when leading at the half, an impressive 45-4-5 when scoring the first goal.
At McCown Field, the Eagles are 43-13-6 under Duffy and have outscored opponents 147-65 at home since 2017.
King heads to Mossy Creek hoping to get its first win of the season. Paul Shaw's team dropped their season opener on Saturday against USC Beaufort 4-0. In that contest, King was outshot 30-7 and 18-5 on goal in the match. It surrendered two goals in both halves.
The Tornado went 6-10-1 in 2023 and 5-7 in league play. Those six wins were the program's most since winning seven in 2016, Simon Duffy's last season in Bristol. King is picked to finish 10th in the Conference Carolinas out of 15 teams.
Ella Froehlich is the team's top returner from 2023. Conference Carolinas' freshman of the year scored eight goals and added five assists as a rookie. She had a pair of multi-goal games, including the season finale at Erskine, when she scored twice and had an assist in a 7-1 win. Froehlich's freshman of the year is King's first since 2014 and just the second time since joining Conference Carolinas.
Mackenzie Winters is another key returner in Bristol. She started all 17 games last season and scored five goals, the third-most on the team.
Under a lot of heat in the season opener, goalkeeper Olivia Stetson made 13 saves in the 17 shots that came her way in 90 minutes.
Kick off between Carson-Newman and King is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. A video stream is available with a subscription to FloSports at cneagles.com/floFC.
