The Ursuline College soccer team travels to Nashville, Tennessee for the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Soccer Championships hosted by Trevecca Nazarene.
The #2 seeded Arrows will play the #6 seed Malone University Pioneers in the first of two semi-final matches on Thursday evening at 5:00 pm CST/6:00pm EST. Malone advanced in the tournament with a 2-1 win overtime win over Cedarville in the quarterfinals.
This will be Malone's first appearance in the G-MAC Tournament after moving over from the GLIAC this season. Ursuline has appeared in the G-MAC Championship game four straight years including winning the 2014 regular season and tournament championships. Last season, Malone fell in the GLIAC Tournament to the eventual NCAA Division II National Champion Grand Valley State.
Ursuline and Malone split their two regular season matches with the home teaming winning each time.
The Arrows used two fell behind 1-0 in the game at Ursuline on October 1 before two late first half goals by junior
Steph Chlad and senior
Cassie Cripe led the Arrows to a 2-1 win. In the victory, Ursuline outshot Malone 19-10 including 12-8 shots on goal.
Senior goalkeeper
Helen Jazzar made seven saves in the win.
The two squads concluded the regular season in a must-win situation for Malone last week in Canton. After Ursuline got on the board first on a goal by Cripe in the first six minutes, the Pioneers put up three unanswered goals to secure their berth into the G-MAC Tournament.
Malone outshot Ursuline 16-10 in the second match, making them the only team this season to outshoot the Arrows.
The Pioneers feature the G-MAC's leading goal scorer in senior Christine Najjar who found the back of the net 13 times this season and also had three assists. Najjar did not have a goal against the Arrows in the regular season but is still a pivotal offensive threat.
The Arrows will counter with the second leading goal scorer in the G-MAC in freshman Jill Bohiling who had 11 in her first collegiate season and also had six assists.
Malone and Ursuline were the two top scoring teams in the G-MAC this season respectively. The Pioneers scored 37 goals compared to 27 goals for Ursuline, however, in games against G-MAC opponents, Ursuline held a 24-23 edge in goals scored.
The winner of Thursday's match will advance to the G-MAC Championship against the winner of the #1 seed and host Trevecca or #4 seed Davis & Elkins on Saturday afternoon. The winner of the G-MAC tournament will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournaent in the Midwest Region.
