Eagles Sports in Review

By Ken Sanders – Sports Information Director

Women’s Soccer

The Lady Eagles played home against Kentucky Christian University of Grayson, KY and was not a very good host for the visiting Knights. The Eagles handed KCU a 3 – 1 defeat as TFC improved their record to 9 – 4 – 0. The Knights came into this game ranked 7th in the nation and Toccoa ranked 5th in the NCCAA national poll.

Both teams scored early in the first half on penalty kicks that were a result of an infraction in the penalty box. TFC scored first on the PK as Meghan Pasquariello was called on to take the free kick. Just minutes later the Knights were granted the same privilege as a penalty was called on the Eagles and KCU made their free kick and knotted the score one each.

The next two goals and the only goals to be made in the remaining time went to Jessica Khoury. The assists for the goals came from Anna Bailey and Anna Long. The Eagles’ tough defense enable in the second half was played on KCU side of the field as the Knights were shut out the rest of the game.

The next two games the Eagles played were against two scholarship schools out of Division I, North Greenville and Emmanuel. TFC had a difficult time in both games as the Greenville squad handed the Eagles an 8 – 0 loss. Emmanuel followed with a 7 – 1 defeat, but the Eagles played a stronger game in this loss. In the Emmanuel game the Eagles came back from a 5 – 0 score at half to out shoot their opponent 10 to 8. Anna Bailey would score the Eagles lone goal, and there was no quit in the play of TFC even though they fell behind early in the game.

Toccoa Falls would then travel to Tennessee Temple University and came away with a strong performance as they dominated the Crusaders with a 6 – 0 win. The Eagles took the lead as they would score six unanswered goals in the last 15 minutes before the break.  Coach Howell said, “All of a sudden we just caught on fire and could not miss, every shot we took found the net”.  The goals came from Jessica Khoury and Anna Long with two goals each; and Danae Martin and Meghan Pasquariello with one each. Assists for the scores came from Martin with two; and Anna Bailey and Brenna Schultz with one each.

The halftime score was 6 – 0 and TFC in control, Coach Howell decided to make major changes giving his players the opportunity to play in other positions. The Eagles out shot the Crusaders on goals 27 to 6. Jennifer Doll, the Eagles starting goalie, had all six saves in the game.

The NCCAA Regional will begin this week with TFC playing Clearwater Christian in the opening round. The Eagles finished second, behind Southeastern University. Clearwater came in third and Atlanta Christian was in the fourth spot.  Atlanta will play SE with winners playing for the championship and the right to go to nationals. TFC finished the regular season with a 10 – 6 record.

Men’s Soccer

The Eagles played Tennessee Temple University and came away a 4 – 2 win. The Eagles controlled the game from the beginning and took a 2 – 0 lead at halftime. The Crusaders would come back in the second half to score their two goals, but the Eagles would not be denied as they followed with two goals of their own.

The season ended for the men with a 6 – 10 record. However, it is the hope of TFC to take this final win into the Regional Tournament and play the kind of soccer they are capable of playing. Injuries and some bad breaks kept the Eagles from a more successful record. Yet TFC has enough talent to make their second season in the region tournament, much more successful than the regular season record would show.

Cross-country

The Toccoa Falls Invitational was held with four colleges taking part in the event. The invitational had both the men and women’s teams from Johnson Bible College, Truett-McConnell College and Kentucky Christian University.

In the women’s event Truett-McConnell took the top four places and Toccoa followed by taking the next four spots. The meet ended with Truett taking first place and TFC placing second. Truett-McConnell’s Hannah Spencer set a record for the 5K course running a 22:21. TFC’s Sarah Sharp came in fifth with a 25:11 time. The results of the meet were Truett-McConnell first; Toccoa Falls second; Kentucky Christian third; and Johnson Bible in fourth.

The men would end up in the same position as the women, as Truett-McConnell would win the men’s meet and Toccoa coming in second place. The Eagles would place Drew Chaney in fifth; Elliott Strouse in seventh; Ben Pigott in ninth; and Jeremiah McDuffie in tenth place. Johnson Bible would place third and Kentucky Christian would come in fourth in the 8K invitational.

The next meet took the Eagles to the Oglethorpe Invitational in Atlanta. The men would run against eight colleges from the Southeast. The invitational results were University of West Georgia 1st; Darton College 2nd; Covenant College 3rd; Young Harris 4th; Tennessee Wesleyan 5th; Toccoa Falls 6th; Oglethorpe 7th; Chattanooga Technical 8th; and Gordon College 9th.

The field had 70 runners and the Eagles’ Drew Chaney would run a 31:24 and finish 29th. Right behind Chaney was Elliott Strouse placing 31st with a 31:36; Jeremiah McDuffie placing 34th  with a 32:00; and Ben Pigott placing 36th running a 32:16. Toccoa’s fifth runner was Ian Craven with a time of 33:11 and placed 41st.

The Eagles against a strong field of runners had a good day as they placed four of their runners in the top 40. This meet was an excellent opportunity for TFC to prepare for the NCCAA national meet held in early November.

Eagle Volleyball has 21 – 9 record after road wins.

The volleyball team keeps on winning as they took to the road this past weekend and came back with three more wins.  In the first match the Eagles were taken to the limit as they played Johnson Bible College to 5 games. The scores were 25 – 18, 23 – 25, 27 – 29, 25 – 11 and 25 – 9.

In reviewing the games it is easy to see the Eagles could have folded when JBC took a 2 to 1 lead in games. The the second and third games went to Johnson with scores of 23 – 25 and 27 – 29. Losing those close games to JBC and playing at Johnsons’ home site could have led to a lesser team caving in. However, the Eagles demonstrated their character to come back from adversity. In the final two games the Eagles completely overwhelm Johnson with a 14 point win in game four and then the final game taking a  16 point advantage.

The Eagles were led by their ace player, Bethany Slate who had 19 kills, 3 blocks shots, 5 digs and 49 set assists. Along with Slate and playing well were; Rebekah Wilson with 10 kills and 3 blocks; Allison Gibson had 8 kills and 7 blocks; Caroline Johnson with 10 kills and 16 digs; and Mary Willis with 3 aces, 5 digs and 49 set assists.

The next opponent for the Eagles was Crown College of Nashville. The match was won in three games with the scores being; 25 – 17, 25 – 17 and 25 – 19.

Leading the Eagles in their attack were; Slate with 16 kills and 22 digs; Willis with 38 set assists; Wilson with 6 kills; Gibson had 10 kills and Johnson had 17 digs.

In a Tri-match at Crown College the Eagles next played Tennessee Temple University. The Eagles again controlled the games with scores of 25 – 15, 25 – 10 and 25 – 12.

Willis led the team in set assists with 37; Slate lead in kills with 15 and 23 digs; Johnson had 4 aces in the match and Kaylyn Roeddding had 13 digs with a 8 for 8 in serves. EaThe Eagles are now 21 – 9 with their last regular season game against Wesleyan College of Macon.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.