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LINCOLN MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY

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Sports Release                                                                                                                                      October 30, 2007

Railsplitters Set To Pursue First South Atlantic Conference Tournament Title With Win Over Catawba

HARROGATE, TN – In first round action of the 2007 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament, the #1 seed Lincoln Memorial University men’s soccer team took its first step toward a conference crown on Tuesday afternoon by defeating the #8 seed Catawba College Catawba Indians 4-0 in Harrogate.

Catawba is a team that has stereotypically caused the Railsplitters problems in the past several years and such was the case in the early minute of the first half on Tuesday.  The Catawba Indians forced LMU to do something both offensively and defensively they didn’t want to do.  The Catawba adjustments held Lincoln Memorial scoreless until the 32^nd minute when freshman Jimmy Vandenhurk (Walland, TN) entered the lineup and caught the ball coming off the defender and chipped it into the back left side of the net to put LMU on top 1-0. 

Following Vandenhurk’s goal, the match remained 1-0 until the 73^rd minute when LMU senior midfielder Leonardo de Barros (Brasilia, Brazil) took a short pass in front of the goal by teammate Claudio Rico (Jacarei, Brazil) and punched it into the back left corner for a 2-0 advantage.  The goal took a great deal of life out of the Catawba players and Lincoln Memorial used the distraction to capitalize on another goal only minutes later when de Barros scored again with help from Leandro Pereira (Brasilia, Brazil) on a ricochet off the crossbar in the 75^th minute.

Leading 3-0 and time working in their favor, the Railsplitters put the icing on the cake in the 81^st minute on an unassisted breakaway by forward Leandro Pereira who notched his twentieth goal of the season with the score.

Defensively, both goalkeepers exhibited solid performances.  Catawba’s Tyler Held went the entire 90 minutes, denying seven of LMU’s eleven shots-on-goal, while Lincoln Memorial’s Brent Cole (Knoxville, TN) recorded the shutout by tallying five saves.

Catawba ends the year at 7-13 while the Railsplitters improve to 14-3-1 and prepare for the upcoming final-four of the conference tournament to be held in Rock Hill, South Carolina this Friday thru Sunday.  The Railsplitters will face Carson-Newman on Friday as the Eagles defeated Lenoir-Rhyne College in their first round match on Tuesday 6-0 in Jefferson City, Tennessee. 

Photo by Ray Welch Photography

-LMU-  

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