Hickory, N.C.--  For the second straight season, the Bears and Catawba Indians will close the regular season with the SAC regular season title on the line. Last year, the Bears defeated Catawba 4-1 inside Moretz Athletic Sports Campus to capture their eighth SAC title. Now, the tables are turned and the Indians have home field advantage as they look to stop the Bears from claiming back-to-back titles and earn their fifth title of their own. 

Catawba comes into this game 15-1 on the season as the Indians were ranked No. 1 in the country before falling to No.4 this week after a 2-1 non-conference lost to Georgia College last Wednesday. In SAC play, the Indians have been dominating, scoring 32 goals while just giving up just four on their way to a 10-0 SAC record. On the other hand, The Bears jumped to No. 10 in this week's coaches poll, their highest ranking of the season as LR comes into the game 12-0-3 on the season and the same 10-0 SAC record. 

There is no lack of offensive firepower in this matchup as the two teams have 7 of the top 12 goal scorers this season in the league including the top five. Leading the way is Catawba's Sydney Jimmo who has 17 goals this season, which is currently second in the nation. 

The Bears will plenty of weapons themselves as Elin Hansson enters the game second in the conference in goals and third in assists while Ria Acton leads the conference with 12 assists, four ahead of Hansson and Catawba's Hannah Dunn. LR has 39 total assists this season on their 42 goals.  The 39 assists are already third-most in a single season for the Bears. 

The game may come down to which goalie can make the big save as not much has gotten behind the Bears' Kristin Oliver and Catawba's Ashley Hughes. Hughes has allowed just seven goals this season, second best in the SAC, while Oliver leads the SAC in goals allowed (4) and save % (.871%). Hughes and Oliver will be tested by these teams' front line as both will face their toughest task this season. 

This is LR's first trip to Salisbury since their three visits during the 2021 calendar year with all three being games to remember. First, the two teams battled on March 25, 2021 in the SAC spring season. The game was played in a pouring rain as the field had more water on it then grass as Catawba defeated the Bears 1-0 on the rainy evening. The Bears got their revenge two weeks later as Kara Gavaghan scored an OT goal to lead the Bears to a 1-0 win in the SAC semis, which led the Bears to their third SAC Tournament title a few days later. 

The final meeting later that fall jump started the Bears Final Four run as the two teams squared of in the opening round of the NCAA tournament on November 19th, 2021. The teams played to a 0-0 scoreless tie then the Bears won in a shootout as Kate Casey scored the Bears final goal in the shootout. 

Speaking of runs, the Bears are currently on a 22-game SAC unbeaten streak as LR has not lost a SAC game in 731 days when LR fell to Wingate 1-0 on October 30, 2021. Catawba will look to snap that streak after the Bears snapped the Indians 25-game SAC unbeaten streak last year. 

The winner of the game as mentioned will claim the regular season SAC title and will be the No. 1 seed in SAC Tournament that starts this weekend. However, if the two teams play to a tie, they will share the regular season title but the Bears will have the No. 1 seed as LR has the tiebreaker on Catawba thanks to the Bears goal difference being +31 compared to the +28 for the Indians. 

This could be the first of three possible meetings this month as the two teams could possibly meet in the SAC title game and, if the stars align down the road, again in the NCAA tournament. If the past few years are any indicator you need to be tuned in on Wednesday night as LR and Catawba will kick-off at 7:30 PM from Salisbury as the Bears will look to capture this 9th regular season title since 2010.