Conference Champions SPSU
End Regular Season as #4 in NAIA National Poll
As the 2009
Regular Season came to a close, the Southern Poly Men’s Soccer Team
took massive strides towards national recognition in only its third
year. Southern Poly ended the regular season with an undefeated
12-0-1 record and a perfect SSAC Conference record of 7-0. The
Hornets entered the Nations Top 25 on September 8th with
a ranking of #18. Since then, they have appeared in the last eight
weekly rankings never once being below #18 and peaking at #4.
Leading the way offensively for
the Hornets are Seniors Scott Anderson, Felipe Lopez and Freshman
Emeka Maduka. Anderson ended the regular season with five goals and
four assists. Three of those goals were game winners, placing him 2nd
in the SSAC for game winning goals.
Maduka ended the season with five
game winning goals and 11 tallies for the season along with an
assist. Maduka led the SSAC in points per game with 1.77, goals
per game with 0.85, and game wining goals with five.
Senior, Midfielder, Lopez ended
the regular season with three goals and nine assists. He led the
SSAC in assists per game with 0.69, was 5th in points per game with
1.15, and was 5th in shots on goal per game with 1.54.
Defensively Junior, Goalkeeper,
Eric Ati has led the way as he allowed only one goal in the seven
SSAC games played. Overall, Ati allowed seven goals in the 13 games
played for an SSAC Conference leading 0.538 goals against per game.
Ati started all 13 games this season.
As the post season approaches,
the Hornets will face Faulkner University at Nuesoft Technologies
Field on Friday November 6th at 2pm. With the #1 seed
for the tournament, Southern Poly will host each round if they move
on. The NAIA National Tournament seedings come out Sunday November
15th. Thirty-two of the countries top teams and
conference tournament winners will compete to see who will be Top 16
traveling to Fresno, California for the Round of 16 in the NAIA
Men’s Soccer National Tournament.
A special thanks to the crowd after the Lincoln
Memorial victory
