No. 7 Carson-Newman Set to Face Tusculum on Sunday in NCAA Tournament
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. — Entering its NCAA Division II
Tournament second-round matchup with Tusculum, the seventh-ranked
Carson-Newman women’s soccer team is riding high after
winning its second-straight South Atlantic Conference
Tournament.
The top-seeded Lady Eagles (18-2-1) will host the fifth-seeded
Pioneers on Sunday at 1 p.m. at McCown Field.
“We are delighted to be the first seed and to have the
bye,” C-N head coach Phil McNamara said. “We had a few
extra days rest following three games in five days with our success
in the conference tournament and getting physically and mentally
ready for a big match on Sunday.”
C-N enters the contest on a six-match winning streak, including a
3-1 victory over Lenoir-Rhyne last Sunday in the SAC Championship
game. The title is the Lady Eagles’ fourth under McNamara.
C-N also won the SAC regular season title, and McNamara believes
his team is playing its best soccer of the season.
“We feel like we have reached a real nice level of
play,” McNamara said. “We feel like a lot of different
players are getting closer to playing their best soccer of the
year. That’s one thing that we’ve always achieved here
at Carson-Newman is the team peaks at the right time of the year,
which is the end of October. That seems to be the case at the
moment.”
Tusculum (15-4-3) reached the second round after defeating
Newberry, 2-1, on Friday in its first round match at McCown Field
in Jefferson City. C-N defeated the Pioneers, 3-1, during their
regular season match on Sept. 30.
“(Tusculum head coach) Mike Joy has done a fantastic job over
the years at Tusculum,” McNamara said. “They have been
one of our main rivals during that time. It’s a great
achievement for his team to be where they are this year, being as
young as they are and just getting the chemistry right. You can see
his team has progressed as the year has gone on.”
If they win on Sunday, the Lady Eagles would advance to Southeast
Regional final, where they would face the winner of second-seeded
Columbus State and Armstrong Atlantic State on Nov. 20.







