The USCB women's soccer team will head to Miami Gardens, Florida this Saturday to take on Sun Conference opponent, St. Thomas University. STU will be looking to avenge a 4-3 overtime loss to the Sand Sharks last season.
The Sand Sharks will look to continue it's offense attacking style of play while relying on the back line to hold St. Thomas' leading scorer, Jannel Johnson, who has 9 goals on the season with three of those coming in conference play.
Looking ahead at the game, Coach
Ed Heberling said, "We need to play at a high level on Saturday, as St. Thomas will be another challenge for us."
St. Thomas University is currently ranked 2nd in The Sun Conference, behind Keiser University.
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 (32), assists (15) and points (79), and she is now the program leader for career game-winning goals, with six 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 Saturday's 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 seven goals against the Running Eagles marked the second-most in program history and the most since a 14-1 win over Florida Christian in 2012.
• With 13 points this season, senior MF
MJ Orduña has moved into third place on USCB's career list with 36.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
The Bobcats are led by Jannel Johnson, who has scored 9 of the teams 23 goals this season. Three other players on STU have 3 goals apiece. The Bobcats are also backstopped by Cristina Garwacki who has given up only 2 goals in 7 games this season. Garwacki also has the lowest goals against average in The Sun Conference.
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
