The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's soccer team will close out the 2012 regular season Wednesday evening hosting Southern Rail rival Samford at Finley Stadium. The game will kick off at 7 p.m.
SCOUTING THE MOCS (3-12-1, 1-9-0 SoCon)
HEAD COACH J.D. KYZER
The Mocs close out the regular season against Samford in the Southern Rail Rivalry. Chattanooga has three wins on the year with a league win over The Citadel on the road. The Mocs lead the Southern Conference in saves this season with 116.
Freshman keeper Lauren Thomas has a league-leading 99 saves and is ranked 22nd by the NCAA for total saves. Senior Becca Smith will close out her career ranked second on the UTC all-time list with 35 goals and is ranked fifth this season with five. Freshman Hannah Wyatt is ranked fourth in the SoCon for assists with five on the year.
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS (10-6-2, 7-1-2)
HEAD COACH TODD YELTON
Samford is ranked second in the Southern Conference standings and has an opportunity to get the No.1 seed for the upcoming SoCon Tournament. The Bulldogs are 7-1-2 over their last 10 games, all in league play, with the only loss coming against conference-leading UNCG last week. Samford is second in the SoCon with 28 goals and third in scoring with 80 points. Eight different players have scored multiple goals this season led by Brittany Hoffman's five. She, along with Trine Taule, lead the team in scoring with 12 points. Taule has four goals and a team-high four assists while Michelle Moll has four goals and Adrianne Mancino has a team-high-tying four assists. Four different players have three goals for the Bulldogs and one has a pair. In goal, Melissa Montgomery has 42 saves and has given up 12 goals while Jessica Perry has 22 saves and 11 goals-against. They have a saves percentage of 75% and a 1.23 goals-against average with four shoutouts.
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the eighth meeting between Samford and Chattanooga. The Bulldogs have won six of the seven meetings including all four between the two schools since Samford joined the Southern Conference in the 2008-09 season. The Mocs' lone win was in 1999, Linda Whitehead's last season at the helm.
SOUTHERN RAIL RIVALRY
The Southern Rail Rivalry was instituted in the 2010-11 season with Chattanooga claiming the trophy in each of the last two seasons. So far this season, the Mocs defeated Samford in football while the Bulldogs claimed victory in the first of two volleyball meetings this season.