ABOVE VIDEO: Eastern Florida held their annual Media day for their soccer team. Jeff Carr, Oliver Twelvetrees and others from Eastern Florida give their take on the upcoming season.
Men’s Soccer Hosting ASA College Miami
MENS SOCCER – Eastern Florida’s men’s soccer team returns to action on Friday hosting first-year program ASA College Miami at 7 p.m. on the Melbourne Campus.
Eastern Florida is 4-2 and coming off a successful two-match home stand last weekend, defeating Jefferson College of Missouri 2-1 in overtime and blanking Andrew College of Georgia 15-0. (Eastern Florida image)
Eastern Florida is 4-2 and coming off a successful two-match home stand last weekend, defeating Jefferson College of Missouri 2-1 in overtime and blanking Andrew College of Georgia 15-0.
The second-year Titans are ranked 11th nationally by the NJCAA and 12th by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA).
Clef Desir
Statistically the Titans also are nationally ranked in six categories: second in assists: 34; fourth for goals scored: 31; fourth for shots-per game: 23.2; fourth in corner kicks: 57; fifth for shots on goal: 91; sixth in shots: 139.
Freshman Cleef Desir leads the Titans in scoring with six goals, all scored within the span of 12 minutes in the second half against Andrew. Sophomore Farias Juarez has four goals along with freshman Miles McRae.
Sophomore Jordan Muir leads in assists with six. Freshman Sergio Segura and sophomore Keenan King have five apiece.
Admission to Eastern Florida home matches is free.
Titans Upset Palm Beach State in Volleyball
VOLLEYBALL – Playing an intense, emotional and excruciating match in which each point was hotly contested Eastern Florida’s volleyball team upset Palm Beach State College in four sets on Thursday.
Eastern Florida’s volleyball team upset Palm Beach State College in four sets on Thursday after playing an intense, emotional and excruciating match in which each point was hotly contested. (Eastern Florida image)
The 25-13, 25-17, 16-25, 25-19 victory before a boisterous crowd on the Melbourne Campus lifted Eastern Florida to 10-9 overall and 2-1 in the Florida College System Activities Association Southern Conference. The victory also was Eastern Florida’s first at home this season and first since Oct. 4 of last season.
Palm Beach, which was ranked seventh in Florida and received votes in the NJCAA Division I national poll, fell to 12-6 and 1-2.
Two plays in the fourth set made the difference, bringing the crowd to its feet and sending the Titans jumping for joy.
Mariah Davis
“We needed this so bad in order to move forward with our season,” said EFSC sophomore Mariah Davis.
“We now have the mentality and we know we can do it and we are ready for our next game.”
The first was a ball played into a kill off the ceiling rafters that gave the Titans a 12-11 lead. The second was a ball played inches off the floor that caught the Palm Beach team at the net and unable to respond as it fell just inside the out of bounds line.
That point gave the Titans a 14-13 lead and sparked an 11-6 run that sealed the match.
“We have a whole different thinking,” Davis said of the deciding plays.
“We have hustle, we have heart. We’ll go for anything really. We’re ready for anything at all times.”
The match was a turnaround for the Titans who dropped a five-set non-conference home match to St. Johns River on Wednesday.
They used that defeat as a springboard to victory, something head coach Andrea Rasmussen noticed in the huddle after her team dropped Thursday’s third set.
Andrea Rasmussen
“They were ready because we made an exorbitant amount of mistakes in the third set,” Rasmussen said.
“They were ready to go out and clean it up and make it better and that’s what we did.
“We let one go Wednesday night, we didn’t have our best outing on Tuesday (conference victory over Broward) so we felt we had something to prove. In talking to the players everybody was disappointed about Wednesday night, very solemn night. But everybody seemed re-focused and re-energized. Everybody was up for it and ready. It was all about our mindset.”
As for the crowd and the support: “It was a game-changer,” Rasmussen said.
Sophomore Arianna Bethel led the Titans with seven kills. Classmate Fernanda Faustino has 18 digs and freshman libero Catilin Stoner had 15.
The Titans have a brief respite before traveling to Babson Park to play Webber International’s junior varsity at 7 p.m. Monday. They conclude the month by visiting non-conference foe State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota on Sept. 25 and hosting Indian River State College for a conference match at 6 p.m. Sept. 30.
That point gave the Titans a 14-13 lead and sparked an 11-6 run that sealed the match.
