The Oglethorpe men's soccer team will travel to compete in the SAA Tournament this weekend in Conway, Ark. The event, which will run Friday-Sunday on Hendrix's campus, will kickoff with the quarterfinals on Friday, where the No. 7 seed Stormy Petrels will take on the No. 2 seed Birmingham-Southern Panthers at 6 p.m. Eastern time.
The Petrels are coming off their final game of the 2014-15 regular season against Centre. The team took an early lead in the first half with a goal from forward Joe McGee, who earned his fourth of the season off an assist from midfielder Josh Hoeft. The teams would go into halftime tied at one goal apiece after Centre scored a goal later on in the first half. However, the Colonels pulled away in the second half scoring four goals to win the contest 5-1 over the visiting Petrels. The defeat put Oglethorpe at 7-10-1 for the regular season and 2-5 in SAA play.
Headed into the conference tournament, have played each of the top three seeds tight for large portions of the game. In the case of Birmingham-Southern, the Petrels held a 1-0 lead in Birmingham at halftime and were competitive to win the game through 75 minutes.
Head Coach Jon Akin spoke on the team's outlook for the upcoming tournament, saying, "We've used every single game up to this point to prepare ourselves for this moment. Hopefully we'll be ready for the contest this Friday."
Coach Akin also commented on the competition moving forward in the tournament, saying, "We've played each one of the higher seeds that we would have to match up with in the tournament. And despite losing those games, we were in control for long periods of time and I like our chances in the tournament. I think we have a very good group of players, very talented. And I hope the things we've worked on, the concepts over the course of the season, the lessons we've learned along the way is the right recipe to get results now in the biggest weekend of the season."
If the Petrels get through the second-seeded Panthers, they'll face the winner of the quarterfinal between No. 3 seed Centre and No. 6 seed Sewanee in the semifinals on Saturday.
The event will be held at the site of last year's SAA Championship triumph, and the Petrels will be looking to recapture some of that magic this weekend.
