GREENSBORO, N.C. – The UNC Greensboro (UNCG) men's soccer program has its Southern Conference playoff berth secured.
The only thing the Spartans don't know is where they'll open the playoffs next weekend. It's almost certain that Saturday's regular season finale against ETSU will be the first of two consecutive meetings as they enter the contest tied for second-place.
The match kicks off Saturday at 7 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+.
A UNCG victory means ETSU could make a return trip to Greensboro next weekend for a semifinal match. However, a tie or a loss and UNCG will hit the road to meet ETSU. This has been a typically close series as ETSU has a 6-5-5 edge.
The Spartans have won three consecutive matches after beating Wofford, 1-0 earlier this week. Since a season-opening setback to UNCW, the Spartans only loss was an overtime setback to Furman. This season, three of UNCG's five conference matches have been decided in overtime.
UNCG's top goal scorers are
Theo Collomb, who has six to lead the Spartans.
Mani Austmann and
Fernando Garcia has five goals each for UNCG.
Niclas Wild has produced a clean sheet in two of his last three outings.
ETSU enters on a four-game unbeaten run after defeating VMI, 7-0, Tuesday. It was a program-record for goals in a game. After the performance against VMI, ETSU enters with the second-best scoring offense in SoCon play, averaging 2.4 goals in the conference campaign. The Bucs have recorded 11 assists in their 12 goals in league action, the highest assist-goal ratio in the league.
Jared Leheta (five goals) and Lucas Lightner (four) have combined for nine goals to lead the Bucs.
