Lady Tigers To Face No. 6 Seed Florida In NCAA Sweet 16 Match

Nov. 21, 2001

Clemson, S.C. — Coming off consecutive shutout victories in the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament, the Clemson women’s soccer team will now face No. 6 seed Florida in the Round of 16 on Sunday afternoon at 2:00PM in Gainesville, FL. The Lady Tigers enters Sunday’s match with a 15-4-1 overall record while Florida is 19-3-1 this season.

Clemson and Florida have met three times in women’s soccer. Sunday’s match will be the first ever meeting between the two teams in the NCAA Tournament. The Lady Tigers are 1-2 all-time against Florida including a 4-1 loss to the Gators in Gainesville in Clemson’s last regular match this season. In that match, Florida posted a two-goal lead five minutes into the match. The Lady Tigers’ Deliah Arrington scored at 78:55 on a 10-yard shot for Clemson’s lone goal of the match. The Lady Tigers won last year’s meeting against the Gators by a score of 4-3 in a match at Riggs Field.

Clemson has a 8-6-1 record in the NCAA Tournament since 1994, the first year of women’s soccer at Clemson. It will be the fifth straight appearance in the Sweet 16 for Clemson and the Lady Tigers have advanced to the Final Eight three out of the last four years. In the opening round of this year’s tournament, the Lady Tigers downed Kentucky in overtime by a score of 1-0. In the first overtime period against the Wildcats, Leigh Clark sent a free kick into the box from 24 yards out that Cindy Mullinix redirected into the net for the winning goal.

Against 16th-ranked Florida State in the second round, freshman Paige Ledford scored with 15 minutes left in the second half to lift Clemson to a 1-0 victory. With two consecutive shutouts, senior goalkeeper Katie Carson registered her 33rd and 34th career shutouts.

Florida is coming off a 3-0 win over Georgia in the second round of the tournament. Against the Bulldogs, senior Abby Wambach scored three goals in a single match for the 10th time in her career. In the Gators opening round match against Central Florida, Wambach scored the first and last goals in a 4-0 Florida win.

Lindsay Browne leads the Lady Tigers with nine goals and eight assists for 26 points. Paige Ledford has a team leading ten goals and five assists for 25 points. Deliah Arrington has 10 goals and three assists for 23 points. Carson has an impressive 0.79 goal allowed averaged. She has allowed only 16 goals in 1834 minutes.

Arrington is fourth on the Clemson career list for most goals (31) and most assists (20). She is sixth on the Lady Tiger career list for most points with 82. Browne, last season’s National Freshman of the Year, is fifth on the Lady Tiger career list for most assists with 20. Heather Beem is tied for sixth for most assists in a career with 16. Despite being just a sophomore, Browne is currently seventh all-time in Clemson history in points with 64. Both Browne and Arrington were First-Team All-ACC selections this season.

Earlier this season, Carson set the Clemson career record for most saves. For her career, she has 302 saves. She also is Clemson’s career leader for most solo shutouts. For her career she has 34 solo shutouts. She broke the ACC career record for shutouts against Wake Forest match on October 16. Melissa Carr of Duke had 30 career solo shutouts during her career in 1992-95.

The winner of Sunday’s match will earn a berth in the Final Eight against the winner of the Dayton/UCLA match witch is also being played this weekend.

“Certainly there will be an element of redemption for our team on Sunday,” said Clemson Head Coach Todd Bramble. “We did ourselves a great injustice when we played down there a few weeks ago and the team really feels like they have something to prove. The veterans on this team have been in this position before and they know what it is going to take to advance to the next round. We are excited about the opportunity of playing a great team like Florida and I expect it to be a very good match.”

Clemson's NCAA Tournament ResultsDate                  Site      Rd.     W-L     Score   Opponent11-9-94                 H       R32     T         1-1   N.C. State*11-12-95                A       R32     L         1-4   Texas A&M11-17-96                H       R32     L         1-2   Wake Forest11-17-97                H       R32     W         1-0   Georgia11-22-97                H       R16     W         5-0   UNC-G11-29-97                A       R8      L         0-3   Santa Clara11-15-98                H       R32     W         2-0   Vanderbilt11-21-98                A       R16     L         0-1   Penn State11-13-99                H       R32     W         1-0   Marquette11-20-99                H       R16     T         0-0   Wake Forest*11-27-99                A       R8      L         0-3   N. Carolina11-11-00                H       R32     W         2-1   Duke11-17-00                H       R16     W         2-0   Florida State11-25-00                H       R8      L         1-2   UCLA 11-16-01               H       R64     W         1-0   Kentucky* 11-18-01               H       R32     W         1-0   Florida State*-Indicates overtime games.