ROCK HILL, S.C. - Despite coming into today with two shutouts in its first two tournament contests, Anderson University men's soccer allowed two second half goals, as Queens University of Charlotte defeated the Trojans 2-0 to capture the 2013 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament Championship Sunday afternoon at Manchester Meadows.
The loss snaps a SAC Tournament winning streak of 11 straight victories dating back to 2010, AU's first season in the SAC, as Anderson's run to a fourth-straight conference championship was halted. With the setback, AU falls to 12-6-3 and drops its second straight match to Queens this season, falling in overtime to the Royals on Sept. 25 in Charlotte.
With AU winning the shot battle 7-2 in a scoreless first half, Queens got its opening goal in the 60th minute when eventual Tournament MVP Thiago Andrade fed Ryan King the ball inside the Anderson box. King was able to slide a shot past Trojan goalkeeper Bo Haug for the first goal given up by AU in this year's conference tournament.
After the goal, Anderson put more attacking personnel on the field and fired seven shots for the remainder of the match, but was unable to find its equalizer. Queens would eventually add an insurance goal by Andrade with under a minute left in the match to clinch the 2-0 victory. For Andrade, the goal was his 15th on the season, which ties him for the conference lead.
For AU, redshirt sophomore and the team's leading scorer, Andre Carle, led the Trojan attack with four shots on the afternoon, as two came on goal. Junior Martin Brain, who was named to the all-tournament team at the conclusion of the match, and freshman Paul von Hinueber each tallied three shots apiece. Joining Brain on the all-tournament team were defenders Lars Zimmerman and Alex Delpy, announced by the league following the match.
Haug suffers his first loss since a 3-2 overtime setback to Carson-Newman in the regular season finale. The freshman would close the match with two saves on the afternoon, as QU's goalkeeper Montrell Morgan recorded five saves.
AU had its chances throughout the match as the Trojans outshot the Royals 19-8, and won the corner kick category, 10-1.
"I want to congratulate Queens today, it is very hard to win the regular season and conference championships in the same season," head coach John Murphy said. "The difference was the first half, I thought we had a good grip on the match, but Queens is a good team they have a habit of creating chances, which they did today. Their first goal came on a set piece we should not have given up, but I felt we were a little unlucky throughout the match. We have a young team, so sometimes we have to learn these lessons and suffer a setback to grow. I hope the NCAA committee sees how well we've played over the season and allows us to continue our season."
AU will learn its tournament fate on Monday when the NCAA will air the NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Show at 7 p.m. on NCAA.com.
