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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- The Samford University soccer team has been victorious in nine straight matches, but will face one of its toughest tests of the 2016 campaign Sunday at noon (CST) as the Bulldogs square off against the homestanding ETSU Buccaneers in the championship game of the Southern Conference Tournament to be held at Summers-Taylor Stadium.
 
The winner of Sunday's showdown will earn the SoCon's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The match will be broadcast live on ESPN3 with Pete Yanity handling play-by-play duties and Charlie Slagle serving as analyst.
 
Samford (14-3-2) heads into the contest as the hottest team in the conference. The Bulldogs are in the midst of a nine-match winning streak and have not been defeated in well over a month, dating back to Sept. 25. Samford's current winning streak is its longest since last season when the Bulldogs strung together a similar nine-match stretch.
 
The longest winning streak in school history is 10 and was achieved in 2011. That season, Samford won the SoCon Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for a third time in seven years.
 
Samford will be making its fourth SoCon championship game appearance Sunday and first since 2014. The Bulldogs won their last SoCon title in 2011.
 

THE LAST TIME OUT - - KELLEY'S LATE HEROICS LIFT 'DOGS PAST FURMAN, 2-1
Less than two minutes after Furman's Molly Dwyer equalized Friday's match at 1-1, Samford's Malcanisha Kelley tallied a miraculous game-winning goal with only 8:49 remaining in the SoCon semifinal round contest to propel the Bulldogs to a thrilling 2-1 victory at Summer-Taylor Stadium.
 
Samford struck first Friday as sophomore Korrie Sauder tallied her third goal of the season in the 35^th minute to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 first-half lead. Sauder's goal came off a pretty header in the box and was assisted by true freshman Taylor Meneide.
 
Samford continued to maintain its solid 1-0 lead for the next 45 minutes and seemed poised to ride a stringent defensive performance to its fifth straight shutout victory, but then Furman struck in the 80^th minute to even the match at 1-1.
 
Dwyer, the Paladins' junior midfielder from Knoxville, Tennessee, notched her 10^th goal of the season on the scoring play that was setup by Treva Aycock and Erin O'Hearn.
 
Not to be disheartened, Samford immediately bounced back and continued to maintain its offensive pressure on Furman's back line.
 
Exactly 98 seconds following Dwyer's goal, the Bulldogs' Kelley gathered an errant Paladins' pass deep in their midfield and sent a high-flying shot towards the goal. Furman's goalkeeper Rose Hull tracked the lofted ball, but it carried over her outstretched arms and caromed off the crossbar.
 
After pounding off the metal, the ball bounced at least 25 feet into the air and drifted towards the left side of the goal. With plenty of backspin and eyes of its own, the ball then bounded off the turf and forward into the net directly in front of Hull, who stood watching on in disbelief.
 
KELLEY INCREASES SCHOOL-RECORD TOTAL IN GOALS
Kelley's goal against Furman proved to be her sixth of the season and second game-winner of the 2016 campaign. Kelley, Samford's all-time leading goal-scorer with 34, was in the midst of a three-match, goal-scoring drought, but put an end to the stretch in a major way Friday. Kelley currently holds Samford's all-time goals record by eight over former Bulldog-great Marian Wagner.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
ETSU (13-5-2) also enters Sunday's championship showdown as one of the hottest teams in the SoCon. The Buccaneers have been victorious in four straight matches and have not been defeated since Samford topped them, 3-0, in Birmingham, Alabama, on Oct. 16. Since then, ETSU has rattled off consecutive wins against Wofford, 4-0, Furman, 2-0, Western Carolina, 2-1, and Mercer, 3-1.
 
ETSU boasts a perfect 10-0 record at home this season and Sunday's match will be played on ETSU's home field at Summers-Taylor Stadium.
 
The Buccaneers' leading scorer this season is Eleonora Goldoni with 15 goals in 2016. She currently ranks second in the SoCon behind Samford's Jermaine Seoposenwe, who has scored a school-record 16 this year. ETSU's Isabel Hodgson leads the team with nine assists this season.
 
ETSU'S LAST TIME OUT - - BUCS TOP MERCER, 3-1, TO ADVANCE TO FIRST SOCON TITLE MATCH
For the first time in school history, ETSU advanced to the SoCon Tournament Championship game after defeating Mercer, 3-1, on Friday.
 
The Buccaneers received a career-high two goals and one assist from Hodgson, along with senior Molly Collinson recording a goal in the 71st minute to give ETSU the 3-1 victory. It was the Bucs first win over Mercer since 2011
 
ETSU got on the board first in the 20th minute as Hodgson scored the first of her two goals on the night. Sophomore Emily McKerlie took a corner kick that was headed into the air and bounced around before Hodgson found the ball on the right side and blasted the ball to the top right corner of the net for the early 1-0 lead.
 
The Bucs went into halftime with a 1-0 lead, outshooting the Bears, 14-3. ETSU improved their overall record to 13-0-1 when scoring the first goal and 11-0-0 when leading at half.
 
It was a back and forth second half as the Bucs and Bears combined to score three goals on 14 shots. Mercer tied the game up in the 55th minute off the foot of Maddie Clark who recorded her 14th goal of the season. Racing up the right side, Clark raced past two ETSU defenders and rocketed a shot that went off the post and trickled into the back left corner of the net to tie the game.
 
Collinson netted the go-ahead goal for the Bucs in the 70th minute after a shot by Hodgson bounced off the crossbar and on to the foot of Collinson where she netted home her seventh goal of the season.
 
Six minutes later, the Bucs extended their lead to 3-1 as Hodgson netted her second goal of the match, tipping the ball in after freshman Georgia Allen rocketed a shot that went off the right post and to Hodgson.
 
SAMFORD vs. ETSU - - THE ALL-TIME SERIES
The Bulldogs will square off against the Bucs for only the sixth time in school history Sunday. The all-time series between the teams started in 2002 as Samford posted a 1-0 win at home. In 2014, ETSU joined the SoCon and ended a 12-year hiatus in the series by defeating the Bulldogs in Birmingham, 3-1.
 
Since then, Samford has tallied three straight victories in 2014, 2015 and 2016 to garner a 4-1 all-time lead in the series. Earlier this season, the Bulldogs earned a 3-0 home win over ETSU held at the Samford Track and Soccer Stadium.
 
DATE                               RESULT                                                  LOCATION
Sept. 16, 2002             Samford def. ETSU, 1-0 (OT)           Birmingham, Ala.
Oct. 3, 2014                 ETSU def. Samford, 3-1                     Birmingham, Ala.
Nov. 7, 2014               Samford def. ETSU, 2-1                     Cullowhee, N.C.
Oct. 23, 2015               Samford def. ETSU, 1-0                     Johnson City, Tenn.
Oct. 16, 2016               Samford def. ETSU, 3-0                     Birmingham, Ala.
--- Samford leads the all-time series 4-1; 1-0 when playing in Johnson City, Tenn.
 

IN THE LAST MEETING - - SAMFORD'S SENIORS SHINE IN 3-0 HOME WIN OVER ETSU
In the final regular-season home match of their careers, Samford seniors Anna Allen, Sara Smeltzer and Kelley all scored goals as the Bulldogs earned a hard-fought 3-0 victory against the ETSU Buccaneers in a key SoCon contest held at the Samford Track and Soccer Stadium.
 
Seniors accounted for all three of the Bulldogs' goals Sunday. After exactly 28 minutes of scoreless soccer, Samford's Allen tallied what would eventually be the game-winning goal as she rifled home a 10-yard shot neatly into the bottom left corner of the goal.
 
Allen's score proved to be her first of the season and was set up nicely by Meneide, who provided the perfectly-placed through-pass for the goal. The assist was Meneide's first of her up-and-coming career as a Bulldog.
 
Just over eight minutes following Allen's goal, fellow senior Smeltzer found the back of the net with a similar score, this time into the right corner of the net.
 
Smeltzer's third goal of the season gave Samford a 2-0 first-half lead and was initiated by a brilliant crossing pass from Sauder. Sauder, who was running full speed on the left flank, dove immediately before the end line and sent a pin-point pass across the field to Smeltzer on the far side. Smeltzer slipped around an ETSU defender and one-timed her shot into the back of the net.
 
Samford's final goal was scored by Kelley, who has now tallied seven more goals than any player in school history.
 

Her score came off a 10-yard header from the right side and was set up nicely by both Ella Baggett and Kaitlyn Orman. Baggett sent a line drive into ETSU's box where Orman flicked a header over to her right towards Kelley. Kelley proved to be in perfect position and skied high to power the ball back over to the left and into the corner.
 
SAMFORD IN SOCON TOURNAMENT PLAY
Since joining the SoCon in 2008, Samford has compiled a 10-5-4 record in SoCon Tournament play. The Bulldogs rolled to a championship title in 2011 and earned its way to the championship game in 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2016. Samford has only failed to qualify for the semifinal round of the SoCon Tournament once, and that occurred in 2012 with a quarterfinal setback against College of Charleston, 2-1.
 
BULLDOGS' ALL-TIME RESULTS IN SOCON TOURNAMENT
Below are the year-by-year results from Samford in the SoCon Tournament.
 
2008
Nov. 2 - - Samford advanced past College of Charleston in PKs, 0-0
Nov. 7 - - Western Carolina def. Samford, 1-0
 
2009
Nov. 6 - - College of Charleston advanced past Samford in PKs, 0-0
 
2010
Oct. 31 - - Samford advanced past Davidson in PKs, 1-1
Nov. 5 - - Samford def. The Citadel, 4-3
Nov. 7 - - UNCG def. Samford, 1-0
 
2011
Oct. 30 - - Samford def. Western Carolina, 2-1
Nov. 4 - - Samford def. Furman, 1-0 (2OT)
Nov. 6 - - Samford def. College of Charleston, 1-0
 
2012
Oct. 28 - - College of Charleston def. Samford, 2-1
 
2013
Nov. 3 - - Samford def. Appalachian State, 1-0
Nov. 8 - - Furman def. Samford, 2-0
 
2014
Nov. 1 - - Samford def. The Citadel, 6-0
Nov. 7 - - Samford def. ETSU, 2-1
Nov. 9 - - Mercer def. Samford, 2-1
 
2015
Oct. 31 - - Samford def. VMI, 3-0
Nov. 6 - - Mercer advanced past Samford via PKs, 1-1
 
2016
Oct. 29 - - Samford def. VMI, 5-0
Nov. 4 - - Samford def. Furman, 2-1
 
WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?
The winner of Sunday's SoCon Tournament championship match will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA postseason. The NCAA Selection Show will air on NCAA.com on Monday, Nov. 7, at 3:30 p.m. (CST).
 
For quick score updates, breaking news and links to all of your favorite articles featuring the Bulldogs, please follow @SamfordSoccer and @Samford_Sports on Twitter.

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