Oct. 30, 2009

Soccer Gameday Central

GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina soccer team (8-7-3, 3-6-1 C-USA) will close out the season with a 7 p.m. game today at Marshall (12-6-0, 5-5-0 C-USA). The Thundering Herd is trying to secure a spot in the Conference USA Tournament while the Pirates have been eliminated from contention.

Last weekend, ECU finished its home portion of the season, tying UAB 1-1 Friday and falling to Memphis 2-1 Sunday. Junior Tricia Tufts scored her first goal of the season, and second of her career, against the Blazers off an assist from sophomore Kimmy Cummings. Junior Bailey Wilcox tallied her team-leading seventh goal Sunday.

In both of the contests, the Pirates led 1-0 at the half but could not hold on for the victory. Junior goalkeeper Jen Kurowicki played both games and made 15 saves.

East Carolina has never lost to the Thundering Herd, going 3-0-1. The only tie in the series was a 0-0 draw the last time the two teams met in Huntington, in 2007.

In last season's game, the Pirates' Blair Heffner and Amanda Malkiewicz scored within the first 21 minutes before Erika Duncan and Angela DeSumma collected goals for Marshall to tie the game. At 106:39, Heffner struck again to give ECU the win and its first Conference USA regular season title.

Pieces Of Eight
Facts To Know Before Gametime

Swanson Enters Top Five ...
When senior Jessica Swanson enters Friday's contest, she will be playing her 80th career game, tying her for fourth with Meghan McCallion and Melissa Penney on the all-time ECU games played list. If Swanson starts the game, it will be her 61st consecutive time in the opening lineup.

The only Pirates who have more than 80 career games played are Nicole Moore (81), Madison Keller (82) and Amber Campbell (82), who all were part of the Pirate program from 2005-08.

Tufts Strikes Again ...
Entering Friday's match against UAB, it had been 44 games since Tufts had scored a goal. At 39:05 into the contest, the streak came to an end when Tufts took a pass on the right side of the goal from Cummings and scored. Tufts started this season as a defender and recently shifted to the midfield, increasing her offensive opportunities.

Wilcox Reaches Seven ...
Sunday against Memphis, Wilcox scored her team-leading seventh goal of the season. Last year's squad leader in goals was Heffner, who also collected seven.

If Wilcox can score Friday against Marshall, she will be the first East Carolina player to pass seven goals in a season since Amy Szilard tallied eight in 2006.

Wilcox Around The Goal ...
Wilcox has taken a team-high 21 shots on goal this season. That is the highest total for an ECU player since Szilard fired the same number on goal in 2006. Szilard finished that season with a .538 shots on goal percentage while Wilcox sits at .677 this year.

The last Pirates to have more than 21 shots on goal in a season were McCallion (43) and Penney (22) in 2005.

Not So Sweet 16 ...
UAB (21) and Memphis (20) each took more than 16 shots against the Pirates last weekend. When an opponent has taken 16 or more shots this season, ECU has a 1-4-2 record. When the foe is held under 16 attempts, the Pirates have gone 7-3-1.

Firing Away ...
In last weekend's two games, East Carolina took 32 shots, bringing its season total to 223 and surpassing last year's total of 216. In 2008, the Pirates averaged 9.82 shots per contest, the fewest in Conference USA. This season, ECU is taking 12.39 attempts per game, the fifth most in the league.

Hold That Lead ...
The Pirates led 1-0 at the end of the first half of both games last weekend, but could not come away with a victory. ECU is 7-2-1 when scoring first this season.

The 1-1 final against UAB was the first time the Pirates had scored first but ended in a tie. The Memphis loss was only the second time the squad had lost when scoring first. The only other defeat was another home C-USA contest, to Houston Sept. 27.

Seeing Yellow ...
The Memphis defeat marked the first time this season the Pirates lost when the opponent had been given a yellow card.

Leading Conference USA ...
Through the team's 18 games this season, goalkeepers Jen Kurowicki and Berit Hansen have combined to make 101 saves. Additionally, the Pirates have been credited with three team saves for a total of 104 stops, the most in Conference USA. The Pirates also average 5.78 saves per game, the highest mark in the league.

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