KICKOFF - ASUN South top seed North Florida women's soccer squares off against North No. 4 seed Liberty in a semifinal match of the 2021 spring ASUN Championship Tournament, Thursday at 4 p.m. at Fifth Third Bank Stadium in Kennesaw, Ga.
 

PITCH POINTS

- Following their 3-1 win vs Stetson in Saturday's quarterfinal, Ospreys improve to 3-6-2 all-time in the ASUN Tournament with both ties resulting in PK losses
- Saturday's victory was UNF's first win in the ASUN Tournament since a 3-1 victory at Kennesaw State in 2012
- North Florida is making its third appearance in the ASUN semifinals (2011 | 2012) | Ospreys are seeking to earn their first appearance in ASUN Championship match
- In UNF's quarterfinal victory, Kendra Hoffman recorded a pair of goals and Thais Reiss accounted for assists on all of the Ospreys scores | Carmel Oliveira recorded the other goal for North Florida
- Reiss' three assists equaled the program's DI single match record
- At 10-1-0 (6-0-0 ASUN) this season, it marks the best start in the program's Division I Era (since 2005) | With a win vs Liberty, North Florida would match the program D1 record for wins in a season
- North Florida's seven-match win streak earlier this season was the longest in the program's DI era and marks just the 5th time a UNF program has strung together 7 or more wins on the pitch (Record is 13 in 2000 followed by 8 in 2001 and 7 twice in 2002)
- UNF went undefeated (6-0-0) in ASUN play for the first time in program history and was just the second time Ospreys have gone unblemished in conference play (2000: 5-0-0 in Peach Belt)
- Senior Thais Reiss leads the ASUN in points (23), goals (9) and assists (5) | She ranks second in shots with 43
- Ari Munoz, Carmel Oliveira and Kendra Hoffman rank T-9th for goals (3) in the ASUN | Munoz and Hoffman are T9 for points as well with 8 each
- Reiss leads the league with 7 multi-point matches
- Goalkeeper Mercedes Sapp tops the ASUN in GAA (0.57) and wins (10) while listed second for Save% (80.6)
- 11 different Ospreys have scored this season with Reiss (9), Munoz (3), Oliveira (3) and Hoffman (3) amassing multiple goals scored
- North Florida has produced a trio of ASUN Players of the Week already this season (Thais Reiss | Ari Munoz | Mercedes Sapp)
- North Florida ranks second in the ASUN in goals (25) | Ospreys have allowed the fewest goals overall (7) and only surrendered 2 in ASUN play
- Ospreys have been ranked No. 4 in the United Soccer Coaches South Region poll for six of the past seven weeks
- Head coach Eric Faulconer's overall record stands at 261-105-31 in his 20th season | Saturday's win marked the 18 consecutive season for a Faulconer-led team to record double-digit victories 

- Last season the Ospreys matched the program's Division I era record at 11-6-2
- North Florida finished with 33 goals, ranking second in the ASUN a year ago
- UNF boasted the program record with a 1.11 GAA
- Ospreys were tabbed to finish 4th in the preseason ASUN poll
- Thais Reiss was picked the preseason ASUN Player of the Year 
- All-ASUN Honors in 2019: Thais Reiss and Hollyn Knight (1st team) | Kendra Hoffman and Leah Ferlin (2nd team) | Devyn Encalada (All-Freshman)

SCOUTING REPORT 
- LIBERTY: All-time record is 1-1-0 | Last met on Sept. 29, 2019 in Jacksonville - Ospreys earned a 1-0 overtime victory
- Flames are 2-2 all-time in the ASUN Tournament
- Liberty is 5-5-5 (2-3-3 ASUN) on the season and are coming off a 1-0 quarterfinal win over North Division top see Lipscomb on Saturday | Flames have won two in a row heading into Thursday's clash
- LU has played 5 overtime matches this season (all ended in ties)
- Liberty has scored 19 goals and allowed 16 this year | Flames have netted 10 goals in last 4 matches after scoring just 6 goals in first 11 contests
- Kasey Jamieson has 7 goals (15 points) and ranks among the ASUN leaders
- Goalkeeper Melody Jayroe has recorded 6 shutouts and owns a 1.08 GAA and 76.7 Save% with 56 saves on the year
- Head coach Lang Wedemeyer is in his 4th season with the Flames, following a 17-year stint at South Dakota State, owning a 187-148-44 all-time coaching mark

FAULCONER TALES
"Feel really good about how we are playing heading into the ASUN conference semifinal game. We have been creating a lot of quality looks all season, but we were having some troubling finding the back of the net. So to score seven goals in our last two games is proving that our recent emphasis on finishing in training seems to be paying off. Liberty is coming off a great win over Lipscomb and is carrying a lot of momentum into our match. They are well coached and I know it will be a great game. I think we are just excited to be playing someone finally from the other division.  We wanted to start to peak at the right time and play our best soccer come tournament time. I am confident that we have a lot of momentum as well and we are playing our best soccer of the season."
-- Head coach Eric Faulconer

UP NEXT
With a win, North Florida would advance to ASUN Championship match on Saturday, Apr. 17 versus the winner of the other semifinal, FGCU vs Kennesaw State. The match would kickoff at 1 p.m. in Kennesaw, Ga.

 

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