September 26, 2015

Showcase of powers pits offensive-minded Eagles versus defensive stalwart Royals

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – It will be a battle of two strengths as the Carson-Newman women’s soccer team (5-1, 3-0 SAC) hosts the Queens (N.C) Royals (3-4-1, 1-1-1) Saturday evening at McCown Field in a South Atlantic Conference match.

Queens (N.C.)

3-5-2 (1-2-1 SAC)

Carson-Newman

6-1 (4-0 SAC)

Final	1	2	T
Queens (N.C.) (3-5-2 (1-2-1 SAC))	0	1	1
Carson-Newman (6-1 (4-0 SAC))	1	1	2

Richard Moodie Interview

Game Notes

Video Link

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – It will be a battle of two strengths as the Carson-Newman women's soccer team (5-1, 3-0 SAC) hosts the Queens (N.C) Royals (3-4-1, 1-1-1) Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. on McCown Field in a South Atlantic Conference match.

The Eagles, who are tied for the conference lead, bring a potent offense that averages three goals a game, while the Royals feature a defense that concedes just over one goal a game and has three shutouts to their name.

"They've a fantastic team and when we played them at their place last year, they were undoubtedly far superior to us. For us to break them down, we just have to keep doing what we are doing," coach Richard Moode said. "We've got girls that can score goals all over the field. I think that makes us difficult to defend against because you can't just focus on one individual because we have girls all over the park scoring goals."

Carson-Newman enters the match-up on a three-game win streak and went on the road for the first time on Wednesday night to Mars Hill and left with a 6-1 win, which was the Eagles' highest-offensive total since 2011. The Eagles average there goals a game, a ranking that is tied for the 21^st-best total in the nation. The C-N attack is led by junior Julianne Herrity (Donegal, Ireland) and freshman Varin Ness (Sogndal, Norway) who lead the team with four goals each; the duo are tied for ninth in the SAC in goal scoring. Herrity ranks first in the league and 19^th in the nation with two game-winning goals. Junior Gabrielle Gianeselli (Knoxville, Tenn.) has three goals on the year.

The Eagles' 18 goals six games into the season matches the entire offensive output from the 2014 season. Of the 18 goals scored, C-N has assists on 15 of the tallies. Carson-Newman's 15 assists rank 15^th-nationally and second in the conference behind Anderson (S.C.). Freshman Holly Talbut-Smith (Crawley, England) leads the team with three assists and is tied for fifth in the league with that total. The team averages 23 shots per game and have outshot every opponent this year. Talbut-Smith has taken 19 shots and Herrity has totaled 17 shots.

"A change of attitude and working hard in practice, especially in front of goal. It's all a mentality when you attack and defend. Psychologically, I think if you're in the right state of mind and you go in knowing you'll score goals and believing that you've done the work on the training grounds that will give you the chance to score the goals, I feel like it's just kind of where we're at for players," Moodie said. "When our players get chances, they're in the right state of mind; they've worked hard in training and the balls ending up in the back of the net. We've had a few lucky breaks along the way."

Carson-Newman will have difficulty breaking down the Royals' defense. Queens's back-four concedes just 1.13 goals a game and goalkeeper Tori Danchak has the 25^th-most saves in Division II with 43 saves; Danchak possesses a 1.07 goals against average. Juniors Ashley Osiecki, Shelby Osiecki, Mariah Lewis and sophomore Jasmin Singh are the starting defenders.

The Royals are 1-3-1 in their last five contests, but the three losses are to teams that are ranked in the NSCAA's Southeast regional rankings, including losses to the top-two teams. Queens lost to top-ranked North Georgia and sixth-place Clayton State two weekends ago during a trip to the Peach State and dropped its last contest to number-two Wingate in overtime 1-0 on Wednesday night.

Carson-Newman owns the series record 5-3, but lost 2-0 last season in Charlotte. The Eagles are 3-1 all-time against the Royals at McCown Field.

Matthew Osborne will have the call on the Eagle Sports Network as the Eagles look to go to 4-0 in conference play and all the postgame wrap-up will be available on cneagles.com following the match.

-CN-