After losing five straight matches away from home, Winthrop (1-5) returns to the friendly confines of Eagle Field in Rock Hill this evening (Tuesday) to try and end their losing streak against a hard-to-figure Appalachian State team (3-3) at 7 p.m.

Winthrop played a man up for the final 46 minutes and five seconds of their game with USC-Upstate last week, but that didn't slow up the Upstate offense as it managed to score three second half goals to seal Winthrop's fifth consecutive loss.

This will be the 17th time that Winthrop and AppState have squared off. The Mountaineers lead the series 10-4-2. The last meeting came in 2011 when App State won 3-0.

Winthrop has, by far, played the toughest early-season schedule of the two teams. The Eagles' losses have come to College of Charleston, Wofford, Furman, UNC-Charlotte and USC-Upstate. Appalachian went into last week ranked as the #8 team in the NCAA Southeast Region; then proceeded to lose two straight matches to Longwood and Radford. The odds are strong that the two recent losses will bump the Apps from the rankings. This week's rankings will be announced around 1 PM today.

Under the aformentioned circumstances, both teams are desperate for a win. The Winthrop side needs to get the monkey off their backs; while ASU head coach Matt Nelson is fighting to keep his job. His contract expired last December and he received only a one-year extension.

Winthrop, with perhaps equal talent, a tougher early-season schedule, a chip on their shoulders and the home pitch advantage probably has a notable edge in this one. Que sera, sera!

Go here for LiveStats... http://stat.winthropeagles.com/livestat ... /XLIVE.htm

Big South Network (Video)... http://www.bigsouthsports.com/live/11537

The NSCAA/NCAA Top 25 Poll for the week of 9.22.15 was released at 1 PM. Notables of area interest were/are...

# 2. UNC-CH
#4. UVA
#5. Coastal Carolina
#6. Clemson
#8. Elon
#15. Wake Forest
#16. ODU
#22. UNC-W

NSCAA/NCAA Southeast Region Top 10 Notables of area interest were/are...

#2. ODU
#4. UNCC
#5. Kentucky
#6. South Carolina
#7. Marshall
#8. USC-Upstate *Last Week It Was ASU, but alas...*
#9. Georgia State
#10. Hartwick

http://www.bigsouthsports.com/live/11537

Down 1-0 19 min to go in 1st half.

Defense was caught napping and gave up an ugly goal in the first 20 seconds of the game. We competed somewhat in possession, but were held to 8 shots, if I recall correctly. Unfortunately, maybe just one or two shots on frame. We went three in the back late, and their big, crafry striker got behind our defense and keeper and scored his second goal of the night in an open goal. winthrop was nothing special, and a team we should beat.

BTW, if you want to see a first class soccer specific stadium, plus a full, seperate track facility with shared concessions and locker facilities, this may eell be the nicest I have seen

I'm going to say it now and im pissed. Clean house and find me a coach who is worth a tinkers damn. Pick up the phone, call Hank and ask for a list of hungry dynamic coaches or former players who can put us back in the conversation.

Between Hank's connections and former players, you would think we would be in much better hands today. I will never understand how and why prior administration could make the decision many years ago to de-emphasize the one program where we were able to compete on a national level. Now App Soccer glory days are ancient history. Problem is lack of resources, and no coach worth his salt is going to walk into this situation without more resources - scholarships, recruiting and travel budget, assistant coaches etc.

Rekdiver wrote:I'm going to say it now and im pissed. Clean house and find me a coach who is worth a tinkers damn. Pick up the phone, call Hank and ask for a list of hungry dynamic coaches or former players who can put us back in the conversation.

I understand where you are coming from. I agree there needs to be a new direction for the soccer program. There a lot of good coaches out there that can fill the spot. The question is, how committed is the Admin in finding these coaches? I think App can find a excellent Assistant or Associate Head Coach to fill the spot. UNCA did it this past winter when they hired Mathes Mennell from Loyola Marymount. Their program has made a complete turn around and is heading in the right direction.

There are two Assistant Head Coaches I wish we could talk to to see if they would be interested in taking over the program. One is Matt Chulis from UVA. Great guy and great Coach. Chulis is a winner. Or Jason O'Keefe from UNC. He has ties to NC and he is one of the best recruiters in the country. Great fundamentals coach and stresses great technique. If App stepped up to the plate and approached both of these guys in the correct way, I think both would be interested. Interview them and let the players meet them. Offer them a good base salary and load their contracts up with a lot of incentives and both would or could be interested. Someone at App needs to pick up the phone and start making some phone calls. These two are examples of good caliber coaches that would fit in at App. There are other prospects that are also out there that would work. Just my two cents.