ROCK HILL, S.C. - With the men's soccer regular season concluding on Sunday, the bracket has been set for the 2011 Food Lion SAC Soccer Championship and the top-seeded Anderson men's soccer team will host eighth-seeded Wingate for the second time in four days.
Quarterfinal matches will be played on Tuesday on the campuses of the four highest seeds, with semifinals and the championship match then taking place at Manchester Meadows in Rock Hill, S.C. on Nov. 4 and 6.
AU, the defending SAC Tournament champion, enters the event as the No. 1 seed. The Trojans completed a perfect 9-0 conference season on Saturday by defeating Wingate, 4-2. Freshman Tapiwa Munetsi entered the game in the 63rd minute and almost immediately snapped a 2-2 score with his second career game-winning goal. He added his second goal of the afternoon at the 72:15 mark to set the final score.
Anderson was ranked sixth nationally in last week's NSCAA Top 25 and No. 2 in the Southeast Region by the NCAA Division II Soccer Committee. The Trojans are led by senior Lasse Sohrweide, who has recorded a team-best 15 goals and dished out a team-high 11 assists on the season. He ranks in the top 10 in the nation in six offensive categories, including assists, points and goals. Munetsi has sparked AU off the bench with six scores and a pair of seniors - Daniel Bowers and James Moseley have each added five goals, with Bowers also handing out three assists. Senior Mark Smith has posted six assists and a pair of goals.
The Trojan offense ranks seventh in the country nationally, was ninth in the nation in total goals last week. The AU defense has recorded seven shutouts and ranks 23rd nationally in shutout percentage, while the Trojan goalkeepers have combined to post a save percentage of 0.812 to rank 29th in the country. Goalkeeper Lukas Hesse is 31st nationally with a 0.871 goals-against average and 40th with his .797 save percentage.
Earning the Championship's No. 2 seed was Tusculum, which finished 6-1-2 in the SAC and was ranked No. 8 in the latest NCAA Southeast Region poll.
2010 SAC Championship runner-up Mars Hill - ranked fourth in the NCAA Southeast Region -- is seeded third at this year's event, followed by No. 4 Lincoln Memorial and No. 5 Carson-Newman.
Catawba and Lenoir-Rhyne both finished the regular season with a 3-4-2 record in conference play, necessitating the use of tiebreak formulas to determine the Championship's No. 6 and No. 7 seeds.
The head-to-head component was thrown out because Catawba and L-R tied in their only regular-season contest. The next criterion is record against the bracket's higher seeds. Both teams lost to Anderson, Tusculum, Mars Hill and LMU, but Catawba defeated Carson-Newman and L-R lost to the Eagles, making the Indians the bracket's No. 6 seed and the Bears the No. 7.
Rounding out the Championship field is eighth-seeded Wingate.
2011 Food Lion SAC Soccer Championship - Men's Quarterfinals
(All quarterfinal matches to take place on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at the higher-seed's campus)
No. 8 Wingate at No. 1 Anderson, 3 p.m.
No. 5 Carson-Newman at No. 4 Lincoln Memorial, 2 p.m.
No. 6 Catawba at No. 3 Mars Hill, 7:30, p.m.
No. 7 Lenoir-Rhyne at No. 2 Tusculum, 7 p.m.
