Spartans Hit the Road to Take on Mercer
10/18/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
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Spartanburg, S.C. - USC Upstate will hit the road for the final two A-Sun games of the season and will play the first Wednesday night at 7:00 at Mercer in Macon, Ga. With just two games left in the regular season, the Spartans need to make some noise in order to make the six-team conference tournament.
Upstate enters the game at Mercer with a 5-7-1 overall record and a 2-3-1 mark with seven points in the A-Sun. The Spartans are tied for fifth in the standings with ETSU and Stetson. ETSU will be Upstate's regular season finale on Oct. 29. Upstate is above Mercer in the standings. The Bears enter Wednesday's game with a 6-6-1 overall record and a 1-3-0 mark with three points in the A-Sun. Upstate is 3-2-0 all-time against Mercer, though the Bears took a 2-0 victory in Spartanburg last season.
Upstate stood in second place with seven points in the league standings entering last weekend, but a pair of tough losses to Florida Gulf Coast and Stetson caused the Spartans to slip into a three-way tie for fifth place with ETSU and Stetson. Upstate needs to secure points in its last two matches in order to qualify for the conference tournament, especially being tied with ETSU and ahead of Mercer in standings.
Fans can follow the action online in a variety of ways. Live statistical updates can be accessed through upstatespartans.com and mercerbears.com, while a complete game recap and final stats will be available on upstatespartans.com.
Looking Back at Florida Gulf Coast and Stetson
Upstate entered last weekend in second place in the A-Sun standings with seven points. After a heartbreaking two losses, the Spartans remain with seven points after dropping a 1-0 decision to Florida Gulf Coast last Friday and a 3-2 overtime loss to Stetson last Sunday. Against FGCU, Upstate played evenly with the Eagles and the game looked like it would head to overtime. However, FGCU got a goal with seven minutes to play in the game to take the 1-0 victory. Upstate fell behind by a goal early in the Stetson game, but scored two unanswered goals by Jan Wienholt and Derek Dearmond to open a 2-1 lead. Stetson came back to tie the game at 2-2 before halftime and the teams played a scoreless second half. With time winding down in overtime, Upstate goalkeeper Jason McCabe came off his line and made a play for the ball in the box, but collided with a Stetson player. McCabe was called for a foul and Stetson was awarded a penalty kick with less than a minute to play in the first overtime period. The Hatters converted the kick to take the 3-2 win. McCabe tallied 11 saves in a tremendous effort, while Timo Foerster picked up two assists on the day.
Scouting Mercer
Mercer enters Wednesday night's game in Macon with a 6-6-1 overall record and a 1-3-0 mark with three points in the A-Sun. The Bears still have four conference games left to battle for a spot in the six team A-Sun Tournament, though a loss to Upstate will not only take away one of those opportunities, but give the Spartans more points to stay ahead of the Bears in the standings.
Mercer opened the season with a 1-3-1 record, but ran off four straight to get to 5-3-1 on the year. However, a three-game losing streak early in A-Sun play put the Bears behind the eight ball. They did, however, pick up a 1-0 non-conference victory over Central Arkansas to end the losing streak.
Will Betts leads Mercer offensively. He has 12 points on five goals and two assists. He is one of 11 Bears who have scored at least one point on the year. Greg Ranjitsingh has played every minute in goal for the Bears this season and owns a 1.20 goals against average with 37 saves on the year.
Looking Back at 2010
Mercer got a goal in each half and despite a solid game from goalkeeper Jason McCabe, Upstate took a 2-0 loss to open A-Sun play at County University Soccer Stadium last year.
McCabe, Spartans Ranked Nationally
In the midst of its finest season playing on the Division I level, Upstate finds itself ranked among the nation's leaders in several statistical categories. The Spartans are ranked seventh in the country with 6.31 saves per game. The Spartans are 24th with a .819 save percentage and 49th with a 0.38 shutout percentage.
Individually, senior goalkeeper Jason McCabe ranks in the top 35 in three categories. He is fourth in the nation with 77 total saves. He is eighth in the country with 5.9 saves per game and 33rd with an .819 save percentage.
