September 16, 2025

Eagles welcome 11th ranked Catawba to Mossy Creek

For the fourth straight season, Carson-Newman (3-1) will face Catawba (4-0) as a ranked team. The two clubs open South Atlantic Conference play tomorrow evening at 5:00 p.m. at McCown Field.

#11 Catawba

5-0-0, 1-0-0

Carson-Newman

3-2-0, 0-1-0

Final	1	2	T
#11 Catawba (5-0-0, 1-0-0)	1	1	2
Carson-Newman (3-2-0, 0-1-0)	0	0	0

C-N Match Notes (PDF)

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – For the fourth straight season, Carson-Newman (3-1) will face No. 11 Catawba (4-0) as a ranked team. The two clubs open South Atlantic Conference play tomorrow evening at 5:00 p.m. at McCown Field.

Carson-Newman has won three straight games and has outscored its opponents 11-1 during the stretch. This marks the tenth time in the past 11 seasons that the Eagles have at least one three-game winning streak during the regular season.

In each of Coach Duffy's nine seasons, his teams have posted clean sheets in back-to-back games at least one time each season. This year's team has accomplished just that and shutouts in back-to-back games. It's the 11th straight season the Eagles have clean sheets in back-to-back contests.

Carson-Newman will aim to continue its recent success in conference home openers. The Eagles have won three of their last four SAC home openers. Under Simon Duffy, C-N is 50-20-9 in South Atlantic Conference action.

For the first time since 2022, Carson-Newman swept the South Atlantic Conference's weekly awards, seeing Molly Bukiewicz (Beavercreek, Ohio) win Offensive Player of the Week and Berna Kabakci (Zeddam, Netherlands) win Defensive Player of the Week. Both weekly honors were the first of their careers. Bukiewicz also reeled in Tennessee Sports Writers' Association Player of the Week honors as well.

Bukiewicz is the first Eagle to score in three straight games since Magda Mosengo scored in three straight games during postseason play in 2018. The graduate student's four goals this season are tied for the most in the SAC and rank sixth nationally.

Kabakci leads the SAC in saves with 24 and ranks 15th nationally. Her 0.50 goals against average mark is third in the league and 36th nationally as well.

Tomorrow's matchup will be Carson-Newman's first opportunity to defeat a ranked team. The program's last win over a ranked club was in Oct of 2018 versus #13 Limestone. Under Duffy, C-N is 5-6-2 against ranked competition.

Carson-Newman is winless in its last six tries against the Indians, trailing the all-time series 17-22-6.

Two of the South Atlantic Conference's best coaches will square off tomorrow. At the current institutions, Catawba's Nick Brown has 116 and Carson-Newman's Simon Duffy has 86, the two best marks in the conference.

Coach Brown has Catawba rolling to start the 2025 season. The United Soccer Coaches has the Catawba Indians ranked 11th, after a 4-0 start. They were rated No. 19 in the first poll, but adding two more wins last week pushed them up eight spots.

The team picked second in the South Atlantic Conference's Preseason Poll is coming off a pair of home wins over Mount Olive and Montevallo, 8-1 and 3-0 last week. Catawba began the year with matchups against Frostburg St and Chowan, outscoring those opponents 8-0.

After finishing last season as the 13th best scoring offense nationally, Catawba has picked up right where it left off last season. It has scored 4.50 goals per game, the fourth-best mark in DII. Their 49 total points, 18 total goals and 13 total assists are all top seven nationally and obviously lead the SAC.

Former SAC Freshman of the Year Bree Ehmer leads the offensive charge, tying C-N's Bukiewicz for the most goals in the SAC this season with four. She has four goals on just nine shots. Morgan Delair is also a big weapon for Nick Brown's team. She's tied with Ehmer for most points with nine, totaling three goals and three assists through four games. 11 different players have scored a goal, while 13 have registered at least one point.

Catawba has won its last four SAC openers on the road. Overall, it has an unbeaten streak of five straight SAC openers.

First touch is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. A video stream is available with a subscription to FloSports at cneagles.com/floWsoc.