Furman Travels to Appalachian State for SoCon Tourney Opener

Nov. 9, 2004

GREENVILLE, S.C. -

The Furman men's soccer team will travel to Boone, N.C., at 7:00 p.m. tonight to face Appalachian State in the opening round of the 2004 Southern Conference Men's Soccer Championships.

The Paladins, 6-9-2 on the season, enter the tournament as the sixth seed after finishing 2-5-0 in Southern Conference play. Appalachian State earned the third seed and the right to host a first round match by finishing 9-6-3 overall and 4-2-1 in SoCon play.

The Mountaineers topped Furman 1-0 in the regular season meeting between the two teams on October 24, at STone Soccer Stadium. Keon McPherson scored the only goal of the match in the 20th minute to give Appalachian State the victory and hand Furman its fourth consecutive one-goal Southern Conference defeat.

Furman, 2-1-1 in its last four matches, is led by freshmen Richard Jata and Eliot Paschalis. The pair have tallied four goals each, while senior goalkeeper Alex Maslow has led a stingy Paladin defense with a 1.04 goals against average.

The winner of tonight's Furman-Appalachian State contest will battle the winner of tonight's match between second-seeded College of Charleston and seventh-seeded Elon. The semi final contest will take place on Friday night at Blackbaud Stadium in Charleston, S.C., with the championships match to be held on Sunday.

Click here to listen to tonight's Furman-Appalachian State broadcast via the internet.