Atlanta Soccer News: Art, Music and Culture

The Georgia Southern Men's Soccer team travels to Greensboro, N.C., this weekend as it takes on UNC Greensboro in the first round of the Southern Conference Tournament at UNCG Soccer Stadium. The first round of the tournament pits Georgia Southern (8th seed, 3-10-3, 0-6-1) up against the top-seeded UNCG Spartans (9-5-4, 4-1-2) Saturday, November 6th, at 7 p.m.

"I think there is something unique about tournament games and especially Southern Conference games," Kennedy said about the tournament. "It's going to be a good experience in what is really a great environment at UNCG."

The winner of the UNCG-Georgia Southern match up will play the winner of Appalachian State-Elon contest in the Southern Conference Semifinals at Mt. Pleasant, S.C., on Friday November, 12th, at 5 p.m.

Saturday's first-round match up will be the 21st meeting between the Eagles and Spartans' in the series history. UNCG got the best of Georgia Southern in their first and only meeting of the 2010 season when the Spartans' left Statesboro on October 10th with the conference win.

UNCG spread the field as six different Spartans found the back of the net. Georgia Southern freshman midfielder Hunter Norton (Evans, Ga.) scored for the Eagles off an Aleksander Tomic (Sydney, Australia) pass in the 69th minute of play.

The Spartans finished 2010 league play with 14 points and claimed a share of the regular season title with Furman and College of Charleston. UNCG captured the title for the sixth time in 14 SoCon seasons.

"It will come down to execution, and finding out if can we execute in that environment," said Eagle Head Coach, Kevin Kennedy. "It's a wonderful opportunity for our players."

With seniors Jon Cox (Alpharetta, Ga.) and Austin Steele (Kennesaw, Ga.) out of action for the first round, the Eagles will look for an offensive attack from some of their younger players. Norton, one of two players to start in all 16 games this season, is second on the team in points, tallying two goals and three assists on just 25 shots.

Freshman forward Ethan LaPan (Martinez, Ga.) is second on the team in shot percentage, scoring three goals on 13 shots in 2010. Defensively, Georgia Southern will start freshman goalkeeper Neal Bates (Watkinsville, Ga.) who will face the Spartans for the first time in his career.