November 13, 2002
GREENVILLE -- The seventh ranked Furman men's soccer team will open the 2002 Southern Conference Men's Soccer Tournament on Thursday against Wofford at 4:30 p.m. in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., with a chance to tie an NCAA Division I men's soccer record.
Furman currently has a Southern Conference unbeaten streak of 41 matches, which is one shy of the NCAA record for conference unbeaten streaks held by Clemson. The Tigers went 42 consecutive matches in the ACC without a loss from 1972 to 1980. Furman has not lost a conference match since the 1998 SoCon Tournament Championship match.
The Paladins enter the contest riding a seven match winning streak and are the No. 1 seed in the SoCon Tournament after finishing the regular season with a perfect 8-0 record.
Furman has not allowed a goal in its last seven contests, which ties for the 12th longest shutout streak in NCAA Division I history. Furman has not allowed a goal in 688 minutes, dating back to the first half of a match at St. Louis on October 5.
Furman is led offensively by Anthony Esquivel (10 goals) and Scott Hoch (eight goals), while goalkeepers Alex Maslow and John Hanley have combined for a 0.75 team goals against average while posting a combined 12 shutouts.
Wofford is the eight seed and sports a 1-6-1 conference record and a 3-14-2 overall mark. If Furman defeats Wofford, the Paladins would play the winner of College of Charleston-UNCG match on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. The SoCon final is slated for 1:00 on Sunday.
"The Southern Conference is stronger this season then it has ever been," said Furman head coach Doug Allison. "We have our work cut out for us as several teams have the capability of winning the tournament."