Oct. 31, 2009

MAC Tournament Bracket

ATHENS, Ohio - Making its 11th appearance in the Mid-American Conference Tournament, Ohio Soccer will play host to defending tournament champion Toledo in the Quarterfinal round Sunday at 2 p.m. at Chessa Field.

Ohio (9-7-2, 6-3-2 MAC) will be the fourth seed for the tournament, while the Rockets (10-6-3, 6-3-2 MAC) drew the fifth seed. The two teams finished MAC play with identical conference records, but the Bobcats won the tiebreaker by virtue of their 1-0 win over Toledo on the road three weeks ago. The winner of this game will play the winner of the 1-8 match-up between Central Michigan and Western Michigan.

The Green and White enter the contest having played its best soccer of the season over the last 10 games MAC play. The `Cats' defense, anchored by Sarah Brown (North Royalton, Ohio), Lauren Burke (Medina, Ohio), Remi Famodu (Bloomington, Minn.), Paige Howard (Mentor, Ohio) and Jess MacLean (Loveland, Ohio) in goal has given up just five goals and tallied five shutouts over that stretch. Ohio has also gotten clutch play from its offense during this time while tying the most league road wins in program history with five.

Freshman Erin Schwenke (Solon, Ohio) leads the `Cats offense with four goals, while sophomore Kelsey Pichel (Rochester Hills, Mich.) has tallied a team-best nine points overall and tied for first in the conference with seven assists. Amy Lower (West Chester, Ohio) and Cathryn Rogers (Toronto, Ontario) have both recorded three goals on the year.

Toledo enters the contest as the defending conference tournament champion. The Rockets are 3-1-1 over their last five games, including a tie with conference champion CMU. Toledo is paced by senior forward Molly Cornwell with four goals and seven assists on the year. Classmate Ali Leak leads the Rockets with five goals scored, while sophomore Vicki Traven anchors Toledo in goal.

First touch is set for 2 p.m. at Chessa Field.