Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
Middle Tennessee
No. 2 North Texas
MT Plays No. 2 North Texas to Open C-USA Tourney
10/30/2017 6:10:00 PM | Women's Soccer
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – After missing the C-USA Conference Tournament last season, the Middle Tennessee soccer team returns for the 2017 event. The Blue Raiders finished the regular season 8-9, 5-5 to earn the No. 7 seed in the tournament. The squad will face off against No. 2 seed North Texas on Wed., Nov. 1 at 3:30pm.
FULL BRACKET
The Blue Raiders and North Texas are deep seeded conference tournament foes. The Mean Green knocked out Middle in semifinals of both the 2014 and the 2015 tournament. North Texas went on the win the conference tournament in 2015 and were the regular season championships in each of the last three seasons.
The Mean Green hold the all-time meetings record at 14-5-2. The last time the Blue Raiders defeated North Texas was in the 2010 season in double overtime.
North Texas enter the contest with a 12-3-3, 7-1-2 record. Their one conference loss came at Old Dominion on Oct. 22. The team boasts one C-USA Player of the Week honor. Tori Phillips earned the Defensive Player of the Week award in the first weekend of October as the Mean Green posted two shutout wins by a combined score of 9-0.
The Mean Green was chosen to finish first in the preseason poll while junior defender Carissa Sanders was a preseason all-conference selection. The squad has four players with five goals or more with Ariel Diaz and Aaliyah Nolan leading the way with six each. Phillips has a team-high seven assists from the defensive backline.
Brooke Bradley has played the majority of the time in goal for North Texas, posting just under 1,200 minutes. She has a .831 save percentage with seven combined shutouts on the year and only 10 goals against for a .76 goals against average, good for second-best in the conference.
Middle comes in with the conference's leading goal scorer in Peyton DePriest. DePriest has 13 on the year to go with a conference-high 29 points. She is also tied for the nation's leading goal scorer amongst freshman.
Amber Hoot leads the Blue Raiders in assists with eight, which puts her second-best in C-USA. Hatch has the second-most points on the team as the one of the starting outside midfielders. She has four goals and two assists for 10 points.
Sydney Chalcraft has been the Blue Raider netminder for every minute this season. She has 84 saves on the year, good for fourth-most in C-USA. Chalcraft also has three shutouts.
The first two rounds of the tournament will be live streamed on C-USA TV with the championship game being played live on ESPN3.
