Women’s Soccer Looks to Clinch C-USA Title While Celebrating the Class of 2019

BOCA RATON, Fla. – After sweeping two teams ahead of them, and leapfrogging three, the Florida Atlantic University women's soccer team is in the driver's seat for the Conference USA regular season championship. A win Friday would do just that and force a celebration afterwards, on a night where the Owls will also have festivities beforehand, honoring the team's 10 members of the Class of 2019 on Senior Night.

Also with last weekend's two wins, FAU (13-3-1, 7-1-1 C-USA) punched their ticket to the 2019 C-USA Championship, beginning Nov. 6 in Denton, Texas. Once more, a victory over FIU (2-14-0, 0-9-0 C-USA) Friday would clinch the regular season title outright, and the No. 1 seed in that tournament. Kickoff against the Panthers is set for 7 p.m., with the ceremony prior to honoring this group of seniors: Tiril Haga, Elisha Holmes, Emma Jacobs, Alex Maxson, Jessica Monteiro, Mary O'Hara, Abby Ribas, Pernille Velta, Maddie Winch and Carolynn Wotring.

In addition to the Owls moving up in the RPI rankings to No. 23 at the beginning of this week, for the third time this year, the team has received votes in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 national poll. Technically the team slots No. 33 according to the four votes they received from the rankings committee.

Owls' Week in Review
FAU this past weekend became the first team in six years to defeat North Texas and Rice in the same year (Colorado College in 2013), and sent the Mean Green and western Owls to conference losses in the same weekend for the first time since 2014 (when FAU topped NT and FIU went over Rice, on the same day, Oct. 17). Pernille Velta's penalty kick was the difference maker in a 1-0 Friday win over North Texas, giving goalkeeper Cassidy Wasdin her fourth full clean sheet of the year.

On Sunday, Velta made good on two more goals, and assisted on the game-winner, to Sammy Vitols, in a 3-2 win over Rice. Velta (Offensive), Wasdin (Goalkeeper) and Luisa Daikeler (Defensive) combined to sweep this week's C-USA awards in the process.

Velta sits just one goal behind Mary O'Hara for the team lead (nine and eight, respectively, for fourth and fifth among C-USA goalscorers), and Velta and Vitols, who assisted on one of the two first-half goals in the Rice match, pace the squad with four assists apiece. Wasdin had 12 combined saves on the weekend, giving her now 41 on the year, to go along with a 0.87 goals against average, the third-lowest GAA in the league.

Owls' Weekend in Preview
FIU is on a nine-match losing streak, all in C-USA play, since defeating USC Upstate on Sept. 15. Their last league win came on Oct. 23, 2016, making them winless in their last 32 C-USA contests, with one tie in that span. The Panthers have scored 12 goals this year, with 2/3 of those coming from two players with four apiece: Rayquel Berry and Ellen Halseth.

Opponent History
FAU has won the last four matches against FIU, in unsurprisingly, the most played series against any opponent. The Panthers hold a 22-9-1 all-time advantage, but the Owls are 9-5-2 since 2002, after FIU had won the first 17. Since Coach Baker took over, it's a 4-1-1 Owl edge, including a 2-1 win over the Panthers on their home pitch last season.

Fast Facts

Women's Soccer on Social Media
Follow the Owls on Twitter and Instagram, both @FAUWomensSoccer, and like the team on Facebook here.

After This
The 2019 C-USA Championship field and bracket will be determined following the conclusion of all of Friday's games, and will be announced either late that night or early Saturday morning. Again, a win clinches the No. 1 seed for FAU in the eight-team field. Play begins Wednesday, Nov. 6 and lasts through the following Sunday when the championship match will take place.

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