This Saturday the USCB women's soccer team will close out regular season play at Johnson & Wales University in North Miami, Florida. In what has been the most competitive rivalry for the Sand Sharks in Sun Conference play, the all-time series is tied at 2-2-2 with each team 0-2-1 on the road. This Saturday's match will play a bigger role in that it may help determine final standings in the conference, and could send the Sand Sharks to the playoff. There multiple scenarios on the table in the last weekend of conference play, but all the Sand Sharks can do is take care of what they can control.
Both teams will be looking to close out the regular season on a positive note and hope to play themselves into the playoff picture with a win. The Sand Sharks will have their hands full with JWU's forward, Savannah Jackson, who has scored 16 goals on the season, 6 of which coming in conference play.
"If history tells us anything about this game, it will be a close one. Johnson and Wales always plays us tough, so it will be important for the ladies to come ready to go this weekend," said Coach
Ed Heberling.
The game will be broadcast at
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/jwunm/ beginning at 1:30 PM Saturday afternoon.
FIN FACTS
• All home games this season will be broadcast at no charge to viewers via the
Sand Shark Gameday Network on Stretch Internet.
• The Sand Sharks return six starters from last year's team, including all-time leading scorer Hayley Piña and fellow seniors
Karen Pimentel and MJ Orduña. The returners hope to quickly mesh with a talented group of newcomers that includes NCAA Division I transfer
Rileigh Olsen, NJCAA All-American
Melissa Fichtner, and promising freshmen
Allison Schaffer and
Hannah Salus, among others.
• Senior F
Hayley Piña is the Sand Sharks' all-time leader in goals (35), assists (17) and points (87), and she is now the program leader for career game-winning goals, with seven in her career.
• Sophomore GK
Moa Johansson entered the season as USCB's all-time leader in goals against average after posting a 1.53 GAA last season, the best single-season mark in program history.
• Six different players scored goals in USCB's season-opening 7-2 win against Life, and five different goal-scorers contributed to a 5-0 win over Middle Georgia.
• With the clean sheet against Florida Memorial, junior goalkeeper
Courtney Sherry is now tied for 2nd place all-time with
Moa Johansson in shutouts in a season.
• USCB's nine goals against Ave Maria University marked the second-most in program history and the most since a 14-1 win over Florida Christian in 2012.
• With 18 points this season, senior MF
MJ Orduña has moved into second place on USCB's career list with 41.
RELATED LINKS
USCB Schedule and Results
USCB 2017 Statistics
Sand Shark Soccer Record Book
Sun Conference Women's Soccer Standings
USCB Sand Sharks on Facebook
USCB Athletics on Twitter
