The No. 24 ranked Emory University Women's Soccer team faces one of its toughest road tests of the season Saturday afternoon when it travels to St. Louis, MO to take on the top-ranked Washington University Bears in the University Athletic Association opener at Francis Field. Kickoff is set to begin at 2:30 PM EST or 30 minutes following the conclusion of the men's game.
After back-to-back 1-0 defeats to Rowan and Lynchburg, the Eagles have won three straight contests to up their season ledger to 6-2, outscoring their opponents by a 13-2 margin. On the year, the Eagles have scored 25 goals compared to their opponent's four and are led by junior Shivani Beall's team-leading four goals and three assists for 11 points. Senior Abbe McCarter has also netted four goals on the season to go along with a pair of assists and ranks 20th in the nation with three game-winning strikes. Sophomore Samantha Hilsee is coming off a strong weekend where she scored three goals and added an assist to be named the UAA's Offensive Athlete of the Week. Senior goalkeeper Dani Staffin is 46th among qualified keepers in DIII with a .587 goals-against average and owns a .765 save percentage. Head Coach Sue Patberg has guided the Eagles to a 170-51-40 record during her 14 seasons in Atlanta and owns a career mark of 316-136-58.
WashU is one of six remaining undefeated teams in Division III, carrying a 9-0 record into Saturday's meeting and is ranked No. 1 in both the United Soccer Coaches and D3Soccer.com national polls. The Bears are led by a staunch defensive unit that has surrendered just one goal all season, entering the weekend with a Division III-leading 0.11 goals-against average. In addition to leading the country in GAA, the Bears have posted a Division III best 34 assists and ranks third in shots per game (28.6), fourth in assists per game (3.8) and sixth in points (100). Through nine games, a trio of Bears have recorded double-digit points, highlighted by Taylor Cohen's seven goals and five assists to give her 19 points on the year. Darcy Cunningham is second with 15 points (5G, 5A) followed by Erin Flynn with her three goals and four assists for 10 points. WashU is under the leadership of Jim Conlon who has earned a program record 178 wins during his 11 seasons with the team (178-35-16).
Emory leads the all-time series 15-9-5, however, the Bears have topped the Eagles in three straight meetings including a 1-0 victory in the teams' last meeting on Sept. 30, 2017 in Atlanta. Fans can follow Saturday's contest with live video and stats which can be found here: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/wustl/.