Ranked Opponents Await Eastern Florida State Teams
By Mark DeCotis, Athletic Communications // August 21, 2014
Eastern Florida College Sports Roundup
Eastern Florida’s Men’s Soccer Opens Season This Weekend in Pensacola
MEN’S SOCCER — Eastern Florida’s men’s soccer team puts its top-5 national ranking on the line this weekend as it opens its 2014 season with a pair of games at the University of West Florida in Pensacola.
Head coach Oliver Twelvetrees’ Titans are ranked fifth by both the NJCAA and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA).
They play Northeast Texas Community College at 3 p.m. Friday and Hinds Community College of Mississippi at 4 p.m. Saturday.
The Titans reached the NJCAA Men’s Division I National Championship Tournament in their inaugural season in 2013, finishing with a 14-1-3 record.
Expectations are high again this season, a season that will see the Titans play their first five matches on the road before debuting at home on Friday, Sept. 12 against Jefferson College of Hillsboro, Missouri.
All Titans home matches are played on the Melbourne Campus and admission is free.
In 2013 the Titans played their first four matches and eight of their first nine on the road.
Three matches against Florida College System Activities Association foe Broward College — Oct. 10 in Pembroke Pines, Oct. 17 in Melbourne and Oct. 24 in Pembroke Pines — close the regular season and will determine the Titans postseason fate. Win twice and the Titans are in.
“Such is life for a new program,” Twelvetrees said.
“Sure the boys like to play at home but the trips not only help us come together as a team but help set the tone for the postseason where we will be on the road, should we be fortunate enough to qualify again.”
But that’s then and this is now and now is all that is on Twelvetrees’ agenda.
“I know it’s a cliché but it’s also true, take it one game at a time, one step at a time,” Twelvetrees said. “It’s a long season and we are excited to begin the journey.”
Nationally Ranked Opponents Await Eastern Florida State Teams
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA — Nationally ranked opponents dot the schedules of five Eastern Florida State College fall athletic teams, four of which are nationally ranked themselves.
Golf, women’s tennis and men’s and women’s soccer all received national rankings: Golf in the Golf World/Nike final spring poll, women’s tennis in the final spring Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) poll and men’s and women’s soccer in both the NJCAA Division I and National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) fall pre-season polls.
Golf, which finished 11th in its 12th straight NJCAA Division I national tournament appearance last spring, begins its fall non-championship season with a sixth-place national ranking.
Tennis, which debuted in 2013, finished its inaugural spring championship season with a 3-11 record and a 23rd-place national ranking.
Men’s soccer, which finished its 2013 inaugural season at 14-1-3 and reached the national tournament, was ranked fifth by the NJCAA and the NSCAA.
Women’s soccer, which finished at 12-3-1 and reached the national tournament for the second straight year, was ranked sixth in the NJCAA poll and eighth in the NSCAA poll.
Men’s soccer collides with Georgia Perimeter College, ranked sixth in both the NJCAA and NSCAA polls, on Sunday, Sept. 7 in Milledgeville, Georgia; Darton State College of Georgia, ranked eighth in both polls, on Friday, Sept. 26 in Albany, Georgia and Friday, Oct. 3 on the Melbourne Campus; and Jefferson College of Hillsboro, Missouri, ranked 16th by the NJCAA and 17th by NSCAA, on Friday, Sept. 12 in Melbourne.
Women’s soccer meets 2013 NJCAA national runner-up and second-ranked in both polls Navarro College of Texas on the Melbourne Campus on Oct. 4; Cape Fear of North Carolina, ranked 14th by the NSCAA and 20th by the NJCAA, on Sept. 26, the College of Southern Maryland, ranked seventh by the NSCAA and 10th by the NJCAA, on Sept. 27, both at Southern Maryland; and Tyler Junior College of Texas, ranked 11th by the NSCAA and 13th by the NJCAA, in Tyler on Oct. 17.
Fall tournament competition for Titans golfers includes Golf World/Nike third-ranked Faulkner State of Alabama, seventh-ranked Central Alabama, and ninth-ranked Wallace State, also of Alabama.
Women’s tennis plays one formal fall event, the Sept. 26-28 USTA /ITA Regional Tournament/Florida College System Activities Association Fall Tournament at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs.
There it will encounter fellow FCSAA members Florida State College Jacksonville, which finished the spring season ranked fourth nationally; St. Petersburg College, ranked seventh; State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota, ranked eighth; Broward College, ranked 19th; and Hillsborough Community College, ranked 20th.
Volleyball, re-building under new head coach Andrea Rasmussen, faces NJCAA 13th-ranked College of Central Florida on Saturday, Sept. 6 in Ocala.
