by Benny Benton
WILSON, N.C.-The Barton College women's soccer team sits in fourth place in Conference Carolinas, the final spot to earn a first-round home match in the upcoming league tournament. King University sits in eighth place, the last spot to make it into the field. Both teams will be trying to protect their positions when the two meet on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Barton College Athletic Complex.
Saturday's contest will not only be part of Homecoming Weekend, but has also been designated a Breast Cancer Awareness Game. Barton will wear special pink uniforms in the match that will be auctioned afterward to raise money for breast cancer awareness and research activities. Pink ribbons will also be sold to hang on the fence surrounding Barton Soccer Field.
Barton College Women's Soccer
The Lady Bulldogs reached 10 wins in a season for the first time since 2005 on Tuesday when they downed Pfeiffer University, 4-1 in Misenheimer, N.C. Sophomore Emily Futral had two goals and an assist, and sophomore Jodi Barber had a goal and a pair of assists to lead in the victory.
Barton (10-5, 4-3) has won 10 of its last 13 matches, and is 5-1 at home this year.
Barber leads the conference in points with 27 and assists with seven, and is tied for the top spot in goals with 10. Futral is tied for third in the league in goals with eight, and is tied for fourth in points with 19. Senior Taylor Parrish has five goals and 11 points for the Lady Bulldogs. She has returned to the lineup after recently missing three games due to injury.
In addition to Barber's seven assists, Barton has received five from senior Kasey Byzewski and four from freshman Amanda Almonte.
Junior keeper Carson Moore ranks second in the conference in saves with 82, and her save percentage of .828 ranks fourth. She has recorded a 1.11 goals against average this year with six shutouts.
The two teams are 1-1 against each other since King joined the conference in 2011. Last year, Barton took a 1-0 win in Bristol, Tenn., with Futral scoring the game-winner off an assist from Adrianna Jimenez. Moore had 10 saves in the shutout win for the Lady Bulldogs.
King University Women's Soccer
The Tornado are 4-8-2 overall and 1-3-2 in conference play. They remain a single point ahead of Mount Olive College and two points ahead of Erskine in the battle for the final spot in the league tournament.
King has had a mixed season to date. The Tornado have a pair of ties against quality programs in Limestone College and second-place Belmont Abbey College, but also have a 4-0 loss to Pfeiffer and a 2-1 setback to North Greenville University. Of King's four victories this year, three have come against NAIA programs and the other against last-place league foe Erskine.
Rachel Thorpe scored King's lone goal in the loss to North Greenville on Tuesday. The sophomore now has eight for the season, which is tied for third in the conference. The sophomore leads the league in shots taken with 60, three more than Barton's Barber, and stands eighth in the league in points with 17.
Sophomores Rayna Spears and Keely Easterling each have eight points for the Tornado, Spears' coming on four goals and Easterling's on three goals and two assists.
As a team, King has scored 19 goals while allowing 25.
The Tornado have split keeper duties fairly evenly. Freshman Nicole Dagher has logged 753 minutes in net, with 19 goals allowed, 57 saves, and a .750 save percentage. Sophomore Morgan Lawson has played 550 minutes, with six goals given up, 34 saves and a .850 save percentage.
Lawson, who is 2-2-1 while in goal, is third in the league in save percentage and fourth in goals against average (0.98), while Dagher is fourth in the conference in total saves.
It was Lawson who recorded the shutout win against Erskine, but she was pulled at the half after giving up two goals to league-leading Lees-McRae, and Dagher has played exclusively since then, earning a win against Trevecca Nazarene and the loss at NGU. Dagher has been the keeper of record in the majority of matches, holding a 2-6-1 mark.
The Tornado have been much better on the road this year, posting a 3-2-1 mark away from home and 1-6-1 in Bristol.
The last time King played in Wilson, N.C, in 2011, it ruined Homecoming for Barton, taking a 4-1 win. Devon Shanklin is the only remaining member of that team to score a goal in the game for the Tornado. Parrish provided Barton's lone goal, and Moore had eight saves in the loss.
Multimedia
Barton sports information will be providing live stats for Saturday's match against King.
Barton soccer fans can follow the Bulldogs throughout the season on www.BartonBulldogs.com and via social media including Twitter and Facebook.
