MS advances to ASC Championship Tournament

10/30/07

 Click here for the tournament bracket

Belton, TX - The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's soccer team is gearing up for a second straight trip to the American Southwest Conference Tournament this weekend in Clarksville, Arkansas. The Cru has qualified for back-to-back berths in the ASC Tournament for the first time in the program's history and the UMHB men will be the #3 seed in this weekend's tournament, the highest seed for the Cru soccer team in the ASC Tournament. The UMHB men enter the tournament with an 11-6-1 overall record and the Cru went 10-2-1 in ASC play.

UMHB will open the tourney with a 2:00 PM first-round match against #6 seed U.T.-Tyler (11-6-0, 8-5-0 ASC) on Friday. The Cru topped the Patriots 3-1 in the regular season meeting between the two teams in Tyler back on October 4th. The winner of the UMHB-U.T.-Tyler match will advance to the semifinals to take on U.T.-Dallas (13-3-2, 10-1-2) at 2:00 PM on Saturday. Mississippi College (11-4-1, 10-2-1 ASC) and Hardin-Simmons University (8-7-1, 8-4-1 ASC) meet in the other first round game with the winner of that match moving on to face tournament host University of the Ozarks (16-4-0, 11-2-0 ASC) in an 11:00 AM semifinal on Saturday. The championship match will be at 1:00 PM on Sunday afternoon and the ASC Tournament champion will receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships. The Cru posted a 4-1 regular season record against the other teams in the ASC Tournament. UMHB's only loss to a tournament team came in a 1-0 home defeat against U.T.-Dallas on October 13th. All of the ASC Tournament matches will be played on the University of the Ozarks campus in Clarksville, Arkansas.

The Cru is under the direction of head coach Brad Bankhead. Coach Bankhead is 21-15-2 in his two seasons in Belton and has guided the UMHB men to a pair of ASC Tournament berths. Goalkeeper Jude Austin (Jr., Scott, LA) has posted a 0.84 goals against average and five shutouts since taking over for injured starter Mark Miller. Miller posted a 0.69 goals against average and three shutouts in nine games. Forward Jonathan Hernandez (Fr., Belton) is the team's leading scorer with 10 goals, an assist and 21 total points. Tyler Wagner (Jr., Waco) has five goals and Bo Baker (Fr., Burleson) has four goals and two assists as those two players are tied for second on the team with 10 points. Six different players have scored game-winning goals for the UMHB men this season. Twelve of the Cru's matches this season have been decided by one goal and UMHB is 7-4-1 in those matches. The UMHB men have also played seven matches that were decided by 1-0 scores this year.