It’s an uphill battle as the Union men and women’s soccer teams fight to enter the conference tournament.
The men’s team has a record of 5-9 with a 3-5 conference record.
“We’ve been learning and improving,” Clovis Simas, head coach, said. “I believe my players are focused and they’re going to give 100% to achieve their goal.” Captain of the team, Paul Langford, also has high hopes for their upcoming games:
“We’re confident with any team we come up against that we can beat them and move on.”
The Bulldogs play one more conference game against Christian Brothers University on October 23 at Union. The team is ranked sixth in the conference, and only six teams make the postseason tournament, but they have to win that game to hold off CBU and Alabama-Huntsville from overtaking them in the rankings.
The lady Bulldogs control their own destiny coming into the homestretch of regular season games. They are also ranked sixth in the conference with a record of 4-4-5 and a conference record of 4-2-4.
Head coach Isaac Brooks is determined to give the other team a hard time on the field.
“They know we can win these games,” Coach Brooks said, “We gotta finish out strong these last two weeks. . . We fully expect to win these next two games.”
The way teams qualify for the conference tournament is based on a points system. The teams with the six most points make the tournament and get seeded based on those points. Only conference games count. A win counts as three points, a tie counts as one and a loss counts as zero.
“We need to win by as many points as possible, Kayleigh Patterson, senior public relations major and team captain, said. “North Alabama is just one spot underneath us and we can’t let them beat us.”
Two of the three last games for the Lady Bulldogs are against the two teams that have a chance to take Union’s spot in the tournament. If Union wins out in those two games then if won’t matter what the other teams do.
It’s a furious battle for both teams as the season comes to a close. The next game these two teams will play will be on Sunday October 23.
