INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - After winning the 2011 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament this past weekend, the Anderson men's soccer team has been selected as the third seed in the Southeast Region's opening round of the NCAA's Super Region II as announced by the NCAA selection Committee Monday night.
The Trojans (17-3) will play host to Lees-McRae (14-5-1), which garnered the sixth seed after finishing second in both the Conference Carolinas' regular season and the league tournament to Coker.
Wednesday's contest will mark the third consecutive appearance by the Trojans in the NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Championship field of 36, and the Trojans will square off against the Bobcats at Trojan Stadium, with kick-off slated for 2 p.m. AU blanked Lees-McRae, 4-0, in late September on the strength of a pair of goals from freshman Andrew Martin.
The winner of the Trojans/Bobcats' matchup will face second-seeded Flagler on Friday at Coker. The top-seeded Cobras (18-2), who earned an opening-round bye along with Flagler, are hosting the Southeast Region and will square off against the winner of No. 4 seed Mars Hill and fifth-seeded Montevallo on Friday.
Lees-McRae, which will be playing in its fifth-straight NCAA
Tournament, sported a balanced offensive attack this season, led by
sophomore James Galvani, and freshmen James Smith and Scott Alford.
Galvani enters the tournament with a team-leading 10 goals and 24
points this season, while Smith and Alford have posted 16 and 14
tallies, respectively.
The Trojans will counter with six all-conference honorees of their
own, including two-time SAC Player of the Year Lasse Sohrweide and
SAC Tournament Most Valuable Player Lukas Hesse.
Sohrweide is third in the nation in assists and fifth in points and
ranks in the top 12 in the country in four additional offensive
categories. He led the SAC in shots, points, goals, assists and
game-winning goals and earned Player of the Week honors twice
during the regular season. Shu Ogawa, who has been slowed recently
by injuries, started 14 consecutive matches this season as a
defensive midfielder who ranks fourth on the team with two assists
on the season. Mark Smith is 49th in the nation with his six
assists on the season and has started every contest this
season.
Kevin Butler was named to last year's South Atlantic Conference all-tournament team and is the anchor of a defense that has posted nine shutouts and is ranked 41st in the nation in total team goals-against average. Hesse has started every match between the pipes this season, recorded nine shutouts on the season and 12 clean sheets in his career.
His save percentage of 0.814 ranks 36st in the country and goals against average (0.90) is in the top two in the league and 41st in nation. Hesse has posted 79 saves, while playing all but 19 minutes of the season. James Moseley has been named to the all-conference team every year and notched the game-winning goal in the 2-1 home win past Tusculum in mid-October.
