June 30, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -
Samford soccer players Kelly Shaffer and Alyssa Whitehead will be making history this summer. The Bulldogs' tandem already helped lead the Birmingham United Soccer Association (BUSA) to the title of the Southern Regional Championship, and the club team will now make its first appearance in the US Youth Soccer National Championship Series to be held July 21-26 in Lancaster, Mass.
Earlier this June, BUSA 90 tallied a pair of critical victories to earn a berth in the National Championship Series. BUSA 90 defeated Tophat 08 by the score of 1-0 in the semifinals and then blanked North Texas by an identical 1-0 score to claim the title.
Shaffer, Samford's junior-to-be in the fall, played a key role as a midfielder on the Southern Regional Championship team, while Whitehead, who will be a sophomore for the Bulldogs next season, proved to be a dominant factor on the defensive side of the field.
Last season, as a freshman goalkeeper, Whitehead earned All-Southern Conference Freshman Team honors and accounted for four shutouts. The Bulldogs' 6-foot-3 native of Hattiesburg, Miss., also finished among the top-10 players in the conference in the following categories: goals-against average, save percentage, saves per game, shutouts and shutouts per game.
Samford's Whitehead and Shaffer will move on to face the three remaining top-notch opponents in the National Championship Series to be held at Citizen's Bank Park at Program Field, July 21-26, in Lancaster, Mass., a suburb of Boston. Alabama's BUSA 90, the Region III winner, will square off against Colorado's Rush Nike, Illinois' Eclipse Select and Georgia's NASA Elite.
Following the upcoming National Championship Series, the Bulldogs' Shaffer and Whitehead will return to campus in preparation for the upcoming 2009 season. Samford is scheduled to open the campaign with an Aug. 15 exhibition matchup at Memphis. The contest is slated to begin at 1 p.m.
