The Emory University Men's Soccer team gears up for another University Athletic Association showdown as the Eagles venture to 8th-ranked Washington University on Saturday afternoon. Kickoff from St. Louis, Missouri is set for 2:30 pm eastern time.
UAA Update
After a tough 2-0 defeat to third-ranked University of Chicago on October 1st, Emory finds itself looking up at the standings after the first weekend of competition. The Maroons and NYU are tied atop the standings at 1-0 followed by WashU, Rochester, Carnegie Mellon, and Brandeis at 0-0-1 with the Eagles and Case Western Reserve behind them at 0-1.
This weekend in addition to the tilt between the Bears and Eagles the UAA schedule features CWRU at Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon at NYU, and Rochester at Chicago. All games are set to get underway at 1:30 pm local time.
Emory University Eagles
The Eagles rebounded with a 3-2 overtime victory at Birmingham-Southern on Tuesday night to improve to 6-3 overall. Junior Jason McCartney had a big game for the Blue and Gold, recording two goals, including the golden goal in extra session, and an assist to help Emory win its sixth contest of the year. The five points represented a career-high for McCartney, who now ranks tied for first in the UAA with five assists and second in points with 15 (5G, 5A). Sophomore Moustafa Khattab had two assists in the win over Panthers, raising his 2016 total to four which ranks tied for fourth in the Association. Freshman William Jones netted his first goal of the season on Tuesday, giving the newcomer the first collegiate points of his career.
Emory is under the leadership of Sonny Travis who has racked up a career record of 412-137-50 in 31-plus seasons with a 118-45-13 mark in 10 seasons with the Eagles.
#8 Washington University Bears
The Bears, who have opened the season 7-0-1, return 29 letterwinners including 10 starters from last year's squad that advanced to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. Among the returnees is graduate student forward Jack West, a 2015 First Team All-Central Region selection, who is one of four WashU players to net a team-best three goals thus far. West leads all Bears scorers with 11 points on the campaign with a team-high five assists to go along with his three markers. Also registering three tallies for WashU are sophomore Ryan Sproule, junior Nick Knight and graduate student Ike Witte. The Washington defense, which ranks eighth in all of Division III with a 0.36 GAA and have recorded seven clean sheets on the season, features three 2015 All-Central Region selections back in fold in senior goalkeeper Daniel Geanon, senior defender Kevin Goon and junior defender Chris Rieger. Geanon in 2016 has split time between the posts with fellow senior Nick Tannenbaum. The two keepers have combined to allow just three goals on the year, all coming against Rochester, with 16 saves. Tannenbaum is 5-0-1 in seven games played, making five starts, stopping 14 shots while registering a 0.54 goals-against average.
The Bears are led on the sidelines by Joe Clarke who is in the midst of his 20th season with the program. Clarke, the winningest coach in Washington history, is 224-99-44 since taking over at the helm.
All-Time Series
Saturday will be the 31st meeting between the two programs dating back to 1986 with the Bears holding a slim 13-9-8 advantage over the Eagles. Emory, however, has bested WashU in the last two meetings including a 1-0 victory at the Woodruff PE Center during the 2015 season.
Up Next
The Eagles return home next weekend to host UAA-foes Case Western Reserve on Friday night at 7:30 pm and Carnegie Mellon on Sunday afternoon at 1:30 pm. Before the start of the game on Friday against the Spartans, the Eagles will honor seniors Scott Haley and Jason Andrejchak with a pregame ceremony.