Upstate Travels to ETSU, VMI for Weekend Matches
9/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Spartanburg, S.C. – With conference play just over one week away, the USC Upstate women's soccer team will play its two final non-conference road games of the season this weekend when the Spartans face former Atlantic Sun foe ETSU Friday at 7 p.m. and VMI Sunday at 1 p.m.
In Upstate's last outing on the road, junior Kenzie Major turned in a performance for the ages when she scored all four goals in leading the Spartans to a 4-1 victory at South Carolina State. Major became just the second player at USC Upstate and first in the Division I era with four goals in a single game. She currently stands as one of only four players in the NCAA with four goals in a game.
Major enters the weekend tied for second in the A-Sun in goals (4), third in points (8) and fifth in shots. She has totaled 76 shots during her career at Upstate and needs just four more to become the all-time leader in the Division I era. Major is also just three points shy of becoming the school's all-time leader in the DI era.
ETSU suffered its first loss of the season Friday when the Buccaneers dropped a 3-1 decision at George Washington, but rebounded with a 4-3 victory Sunday at Howard to improve to 7-1 this season. ETSU sophomore Hannah Short leads the NCAA with 12 goals scored and has scored at least one goal in every game thus far this season. Senior Jasmin Dutton leads the team with 11 assists.
VMI has lost five consecutive matches after opening the season with a 2-1 win over Howard on Aug. 22. During its current losing streak, VMI is being outscored 16-1 and hasn't scored a goal since Sept. 8 against Gardner-Webb.
The Spartans have won all three meetings with the Keydets and have outscored VMI 6-3 in the all-time series that dates back to the 2011 season. Last season in Spartanburg, VMI jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the 18th minute, but second half goals from Courtney Deblois (67th minute) and Haley Gethin (87th minute) propelled Upstate to a 2-1 victory in the opening game of the year.
"This is our final weekend before we begin A-Sun play, so we are hoping we have improved in the necessary areas that will allow us to come away with two wins," USC Upstate head coach Abby Minihan said. "We expect two extremely competitive games against two quality teams, but we also hope this can be a springboard as we head into conference play."
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