Nov. 5, 2011
GREENSBORO, N.C. -
The top-seeded Samford University soccer team will play for a trip to the NCAA Tournament on Sunday as the Bulldogs square off against the third-seeded College of Charleston Cougars in the championship match of the 2011 Southern Conference Tournament being held at noon (CDT) at the UNCG Soccer Stadium.
The championship match will be broadcast live on ESPN3 with Darren Goldwater and Charlie Slagle on the call.
Samford (13-5-2) heads into Sunday's showdown with aspirations of extending its school-record, nine-match winning streak. The Bulldogs have not been defeated since a hard-fought 2-0 loss at Vanderbilt on Sept. 18, and are also in the midst of a school-record, 13-match unbeaten streak.
For a second straight season, Samford advanced to the SoCon Tournament championship match. Last year, the Bulldogs faced top-seeded UNCG in the title game and dropped a 1-0 decision against the Spartans. Samford has been a member of the SoCon for four seasons and has advanced to the semifinals each year.
The Bulldogs won their first regular-season championship this year and Samford is attempting to earn its first SoCon Tournament title.
College of Charleston (13-7-1) advanced to Sunday's title match by defeating Georgia Southern 4-2 on Friday. The Cougars took a 3-0 first-half lead and held off the Eagles' comeback effort in the second frame to claim their program-record 13th win of the season. College of Charleston outshot Georgia Southern, 17-7, and put 12 shots on frame.
The Cougars finished the regular season as the third-place team in the SoCon. The Cougars have been victorious in back-to-back matches and have won five of their last seven contests.
On Friday, Samford held off a feisty Furman squad to tally a thrilling, 1-0 double-overtime triumph. With less than two minutes remaining in the final overtime period, the Bulldogs' Sarah Wilkinson scored the golden goal in the 109th minute to lift Samford to victory in the semifinal round of the 2011 Southern Conference Tournament.
Wilkinson's game-winning goal was her third of the season and extended her school-record total in the category to 12. On Friday's golden goal, Wilkinson stole an errant pass in the box, stepped around a defender and fired the ball into an empty net.
The Bulldogs' Alyssa Whitehead made a match-saving stop with only 2:05 remaining in regulation as she tallied a diving save on a penalty-kick attempt from India Robinson. Furman was awarded the possible game-winning penalty kick when a Samford defender committed a foul in the box.
On the attempt, Robinson sent a low, straight kick on goal with hopes of catching Whitehead leaning to either side, but the Bulldogs' First-Team All-SoCon goalkeeper made a perfect play on the ball to send the match into overtime.
Samford owns a 3-1-2 all-time record against College of Charleston. Earlier this season, the Bulldogs opened their home SoCon slate with a 2-1 overtime victory against the Cougars.
In the win, Samford's Wilkinson tallied the 10th game-winning goal of her storied career as she registered the match's golden goal in the seventh minute of overtime to defeat the College of Charleston, 2-1, at the Samford Soccer Stadium.
Samford's game-winning goal in the Sept. 30 matchup was scored in the 97th minute of play. On the decisive score, the Bulldogs' Shanika Thomas stole the ball from a College of Charleston midfielder and drove up the right flank where she found Kaley Blanton just outside the box on the right wing.
Blanton, Samford's junior forward from Mandeville, La., then sped past a pair of Cougar defenders and rifled a crossing pass perfectly into the goalkeeping box. As the ball was touched in from Blanton, Wilkinson made her run from the left flank and perfectly timed her shot into the back of the net.
The winner of Sunday's 2011 SoCon Tournament championship will earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament which will begin Friday.
