LAKELAND, Fla. – The Florida Southern College women's soccer team will travel to Daytona Beach on Thursday to face No. 11/two-seed Embry-Riddle for the Sunshine State Conference semifinal of the 2023 SSC Tournament.
SSC Semifinal
Opponent: No. 11/two-seed Embry-Riddle
Location: Daytona Beach, Fla. | ERAU Soccer Stadium
Date: Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023 | 6:00 p.m.
Live Stats:
http://www.fscmocs.com/stats
Live Video:
www.fscmocs.com/live
Tournament Page:
https://sunshinestateconference.com/tournaments/?id=224
Florida Southern advanced to the semifinals after a 2-1 overtime win over No. 24 Nova Southeastern, a three-seed, on Monday, the first SSC tournament win since 2013. The Mocs exacted revenge on the Sharks after a regular season loss, but not without a full 110 minutes on the field. NSU got an early goal that slipped past FSC keeper
Jenny Staten, but
Malia Brost scored the equalizer within minutes of the first half. With a 1-1 through regulation, a penalty kick opportunity taken by
Rilee Hasegawa led to FSC's first lead of the day. Great defense and clutch saves by Staten fended off an NSU comeback with FSC winning 2-1 to advance.
"I was delighted with the way the team performed against NSU," said head coach
Gerry Lucey on the team's win on Monday. "We were energetic, focused, organized, and very enjoyable to watch. Nova Southeastern possesses many quality players all over the field and we were able to nullify their main threats whilst being a threat ourselves. Excited for the players and staff to get the first SSC tournament win since 2013."
6th Seed – The Moccasins - Roster | Schedule | Coaches | Statistics
The Mocs have continued to improve throughout the season and the success showed with three Moccasins honored in the All-SSC awards announced on Wednesday. Staten repeated as a Second Team member as Brost and
Ally Prentice were named to the Third Team. Brost leads the team in goals with six with Prentice right behind with five. Other shining scorers include freshmen
Sierra Spirk and Hasegawa, with experience behind
Jasmin Adames and
Anita Vera.
While the offense continued to put FSC in a great position, the defense has excelled behind a backline of
Jordan King, Madison Male, and
Liliana Jeffries. With a veteran like Staten in goal, the pairing of defense has only allowed 20 goals and 180 shots while adding 27 goals and 262 shots on offense. Depth has also played well for the Mocs with key bench contributors like
Bridgett Barrowman, Meghan Kriney, and
Ori Gotauco.
2nd Seed – The Eagles - Roster | Schedule | Coaches | Statistics
A conference leader throughout the year, Embry-Riddle is stacked with talent with the FSC matchup the only ERAU loss on the year. The Eagles are led by Marie Myhrvold Seim with nine goals this year with Isabelle Navren (six) and Lauryn Mateo (five) as other top scorers. Seim, Grace Foyer, Navren, and Thea Nyberg were named to the All-SSC First Team with Mateo being Freshman of the Year and Nyberg the Defensive Player of the Year. In all, ERAU had 10 athletes earning All-SSC honors, with Oona Jokinen a Third Team member as a goalkeeper. Matching FSC's success in penalty kicks, ERAU is 3-3 in penalties.
As a team, Embry-Riddle has allowed only 12 goals all year and 126 shots. With 34 goals on offense, ERAU has made 46 saves on 104 shots on goal. Consistently living on the offense front, ERAU has a league-high 118 corners taken with many opportunities originating from the corners.
The Matchup – FSC vs ERAU
The regular season matchup went to the Mocs in a major upset over then-No. 3 Eagles at Berend Field by a score of 1-0. Prentice scored the game-winner with a great pass by Adames which Prentice scored off a deflection by the defender out of view of the keeper. The historic win was the first over a ranked opponent since 2014 and the first over a top-five team since 2010. Overall, FSC has a 5-6-4 record against the Eagles and this will be the first time the two teams met in a conference tournament. The second round of the 2022 NCAA South Region Championships marked the last time the two teams met in a postseason game, NCAA or SSC, in which ERAU beat FSC 3-0 in Daytona Beach. The last win against ERAU in Daytona Beach was Oct. 15, 1998 as the Mocs won 2-1 on the road.
"Embry-Riddle has been at the pinnacle of the conference the past few years and also has tons of quality all over the field," said Lucey on the semifinal matchup. "They are very well coached and can cause problems if we aren't focused and tuned into our individual and collection assignments. We got the best of them last time so we will need some big performances to get us through the semifinal."
FSC in the SSC Tournament
Thursday's game will make the second year in a row the Mocs have appeared in a semifinal matchup. The quarterfinal win over Nova Southeastern marked the first time the Moccasins have won a conference tournament game since 2013 when the Mocs beat Tampa in double overtime of a quarterfinal matchup. A second-consecutive appearance in the conference postseason for the Mocs after last year's No. 1 seed and a first-round bye after the historic 2022 season was highlighted by an SSC Regular Season title (the first in program history). In the 2022 conference tournament, FSC fell to Florida Tech in penalties in the hard-fought contest. This year will mark the 11th appearance in the conference tournament with a 7-6-4 record and sixth semifinal appearance. Before the 2022 season, the last tournament appearance for the Mocs was in 2017 when FSC lost 2-1 to Florida Tech.
Other Games Around the League
No. 17/1
st-Seed Florida Tech vs 5
th-Seed Eckerd – Nov. 9, 2023 | 7:00 p.m. | Melbourne, Fla.
Winners of the semifinal games will move on to the Championship Final, which will be played on Sunday, November 12th. The winner of the women's tournament will receive automatic qualification to the 2023 NCAA Division II Soccer Championships. The opening round of the NCAA Division II Championship is scheduled for Thursday, November 16th - Sunday, November 19th at non-predetermined sites. The third round and quarterfinals will be Friday, December 1st - Sunday, December 3rd. The semifinals and final will be played Thursday, December 7th - Saturday, December 9th at the Mecklenburg County Sportsplex in Matthews, North Carolina. The NCAA will announce championship selections and seeding on Monday, November 13th on ncaa.com.
