SALISBURY, N.C. - The Lenoir-Rhyne Women's Soccer team returns to the NCAA Tournament for the eighth time in program history on Friday night as they travel to Salisbury, N.C. to take on SAC rival Catawba in the opening round. Head coach
Gary Higgins leads the Bears into his fourth NCAA Tournament at the helm of the Bear program. The last time Lenoir-Rhyne made the NCAA Tournament in 2019, they lost to Wingate 4-0 in the opening round.
Catawba won both the SAC regular season and tournament championships and have a record of 18-0-2. The Indians astonishingly outscored their opponents 61-5 this season and posted 15 shutouts. The Bears are 16-23-3 all-time against Catawba, and the Indians have won three out of the last five, including a 2-0 win over the Bears in Hickory on Oct. 6. However, since 2010, the Bears are 11-5 against the Indians.
The game features a combined 16 players on the All-Conference teams, including seven from Lenoir-Rhyne and nine from Catawba.
Ria Acton and
Vivien Becker Peralta earned First-Team selections while
Leonie Proessl was a Second-Team pick.
Allie Zueger,
Evan O'Leary,
Stephanie Figueiredo and
Grayson Cameron were all on the Third-Team.
The Bears have a good mix of experience and youth, as freshmen Proessl and O'Leary combined for 19 goals this season for LR, and Becker-Peralta was First-Team All-Conference. The Bears also have nine returners from the 2019 NCAA Tournament squad.
The Indians had both the offensive and defensive players of the year in the SAC in Hannah Dunn and Katie Beck respectively. Dunn led the league with 17 goals, six more than the second place player. Beck led the Indian defense that conceded only five goals the entire season, and she scored nine goals herself, good for 3rd in the SAC. Both of those players were First-Team All-Conference, and were joined by teammates Sydney Jimmo and Helen Summerrell on the First-Team. On the Second-Team for the Indians was Kasey Hahn, Jovana Sanchez, Sharon Mayes, Katie Webb and goalkeeper Sierra Davis.
This is the first meeting between the programs in the NCAA Tournament. They met in the SAC Tournament semifinals last season, with the Bears taking a 1-0 OT win on a game-winner from
Kara Gavaghan.
Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Friday at Catawba.
