The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s soccer team will open Southern Conference action this weekend against Mercer and The Citadel.
“Mercer's always a really difficult opponent," Said head coach Gavin McKinney. "I'd say they're always one of the more physical sides in our league. I think that they're going to come here on Friday ready to play and attempt to grind out a result on the road. We've just got to match the intensity they bring to the game.”
This will be the ninth meeting between the Mocs and the Bears with UTC leading the series 4-3-1.
Chattanooga won the first three meetings in the early 2000s. Since joining the Southern Conference in 2014, Mercer holds a 1-3-1 record against the Mocs including a scoreless draw last season in Macon.
The Mocs are 4-4-1 overall following a competitive non-conference slate. Chattanooga started the year with a 3-1 start before going 0-3-1 over the next four matches then closed out conference play with a 3-0 win over North Alabama for its fourth shutout of the season.
Chloe Arnold leads the Southern Conference with 17 points and seven goals and ranks 15th in the NCAA in both. Masey Fox has three goals and a team-high four assists. Lauren Dluzewski and Bailey Gale each have two goals and Gale is third on the team in scoring with two assists. Chattanooga has gotten scoring from nine different players this season.
Melia Correa and Ashton Shields have shared time in goal this season with a combined four shutouts. Shields has given up just two goals and has a .889 saves percentage through 290 minutes in the net.
The Bears are 5-3-2 on the year including a win over former SoCon foe Davidson (3-0). They have shutouts against USC Aiken (7-0), Mississippi Valley State (5-0), Davidson and Alabama State (7-0). Their losses have come against Georgia State, Presbyterian and Austin Peay.
Mercer has outscored its opponents 29-9, averaging 2.90 goals per game on 21.6 shots per game. Abigail Zoeller leads Mercer with six goals and five assists for 17 points. Four Bears have three goals each while two others have two apiece. Idris Kyra has four assists and two other Mercer players have three each.
Jordyn Ebert has started six games in goal for Mercer with a 0.86 goals against average and 29 saves. She has a 3-3-2 record with three shutouts. Payton Jamieson has four starts and given up just two goals with nine saves and one win.