Men's Soccer Seeks to Build Big South Winning Streak

THE MATCHUP

Teams: UNC Asheville (3-8-0, 2-0-0 BSC)

Gardner-Webb University (3-6-0, 1-1-0 BSC)

Location: Greenwood Field, Asheville, N.C.

Time: October 5, 7:00 p.m.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville men's soccer team faces the Runnin' Bulldogs of Gardner-Webb University at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 5 on Greenwood Field in Asheville, N.C.

NOTABLES:

Last Time Out: Asheville moved to 2-0 in the Big South conference on Saturday when junior midfielder Andrew Lawrence scored on a header with 30 seconds left in the match, bringing the Bulldogs a 4-3 victory at Liberty. Senior Zach Joens, the Big South's leading scorer, assisted on Lawrence's goal after scoring two of his own in the victory.

Scouting Gardner-Webb: On Saturday, the Runnin' Bulldogs lost 1-0 to nationally ranked Big South foe, Radford. Ali Al-Gashamy, a native of Iraq who came to Gardner-Webb via Norway, is the team's leading scorer with six goals and two assists.

A Tale of Two Halves: The Bulldogs surrendered first-half goals in each of their last three matches and trailed at halftime. Against Liberty and Appalachian State, Asheville was outshot by a total of 19-4 in the first half. But, the past three matches, the Bulldogs were the stronger side late, holding an 8-3 margin in goals after halftime while winning two of the three.

QUOTABLES

"Big South play continues. We are obviously pleased with our start, but we know that literally we're only a quarter of the way through it. A talented opponent in Gardner-Webb, they have a couple of very special players, and a lot of talent in the attacking part of the field, and they are going to cause us a lot of problems with that. One thing that we have tried to focus on is getting better every week, and so far I think we've done a good job of that. We are very very excited to play on Greenwood field in front of our home crowd, and I think that it will be an exciting football match." -Head coach Mathes Mennell

UP NEXT

The Bulldogs travel to Buies Creek, N.C. to take on Campbell University at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 7.