GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Tusculum University has qualified for the 2021 South Atlantic Conference Women's Soccer Spring Tournament, which begins Monday with quarterfinal action at campus sites.
The Pioneers, who earned the seventh seed in the eight-team field, will play at second-seeded Queens University of Charlotte on Monday at 7 p.m at the Queens Sports Complex. The winner will advance to the semifinals on Thursday, April 8, with the championship game scheduled for Sunday, April 11.
The SAC divided the 12-team conference into three pods of four teams apiece, with each team playing a round-robin schedule of six games within its pod. The first-place teams in each pod received the top three seeds in the tournament, with seeds four through six going to the three second-place teams. Seeds seven and eight were assigned to the two teams with the most points among the three third-place squads.
The Pioneers finished in third place in their pod with a 2-2-2 record, including two draws with pod winner Lincoln Memorial. Queens was 5-1-0 in its pod and matched Catawba on all tiebreakers, resulting in a coin flip that gave Catawba the top seed and Queens the number-two seed.
Tusculum is led on offense by sophomore forward Tina Haig, who has three goals and one assist for seven points in seven matches, including two game-winning goals. Sophomore midfielder Brianna Garcia has two goals and two assists for six points, while senior midfielder Brooke Radcliffe has contributed a goal and three assists.
The Pioneer defense is anchored by senior Kenzie Ellenburg, who has scored two goals on offense, along with freshman Cristina Iranzo who has a goal and an assist in eight matches. In goal, graduate student Cece Mortensen has started all eight matches and has a 1.56 goals against average and 42 saves for a .764 save percentage.
Queens scored just nine goals in seven matches during the spring season, but allowed just two goals behind the play of sophomore Erica Turner, who had five shutouts and a miniscule 0.28 goals against average. The Royals' offense is led by Mia Manuel, who had two goals and two assists for six points in six matches, along with senior forward Emma Rose Stockton who scored a pair of goals.
The Royals enter the postseason with four straight shutout victories, the last three coming by identical 1-0 scores over Anderson, Newberry and Limestone. The Royals' only loss was a 1-0 setback to Limestone on March 4, for a span of 372 minutes, 24 seconds without conceding a goal.
Tusculum has a 6-4-1 lead in the all-time series against Queens, but the Pioneers have lost all four trips to Charlotte since the Royals joined the SAC for the 2013 season. The teams have split two previous meetings in the SAC Tournament, with Tusculum winning 1-0 in the 2013 quarterfinals at Pioneer Field and Queens winning 4-0 in the 2015 quarterfinals at the Queens Sports Complex.
The winner of Monday's Queens/Tusculum game will face either third-seeded Lincoln Memorial or sixth-seeded Limestone on Thursday in the semifinals. The other half of the bracket has top-seeded Catawba playing Wingate and fourth-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne hosting fifth-seeded Carson-Newman in quarterfinal action on Monday.
All SAC Tournament matches will be played at the higher seeds and will follow the host institution's attendance policies.
2021 South Atlantic Conference Women's Soccer Spring Tournament
Quarterfinals - Monday, April 5 (at higher seeds)
Game 1: #8 Wingate at #1 Catawba, 7 p.m.
Game 2: #5 Carson-Newman at #4 Lenoir-Rhyne., 5 p.m.
Game 3: #7 Tusculum at #2 Queens, 7 p.m.
Game 4: #6 Limestone at #3 Lincoln Memorial, 7 p.m.
Semifinals - Thursday, April 8 (at higher seeds)
Game 5: winner game 1 vs. winner game 2, TBA
Game 6: winner game 3 vs. winner game 4, TBA
Finals - Sunday, April 11 (at higher seed)
Game 7: winner game 5 vs. winner game 6, TBA
