For the first time in program history the Middle Tennessee women’s soccer program will play host to the top-ranked team in the country when No. 1 Florida State makes a visit to Murfreesboro on Sunday.
“It’s exciting to have a team with such tradition and notoriety on our campus,” Head Coach Aston Rhoden said. “They’ll certainly be a fun and competitive team for us to play against in front of our fans.”
The meeting between the Blue Raiders and Seminoles is just the second appearance the two teams have made against each other, first meeting back in 2005 in Tallahassee in a match that resulted in a 3-0 win for FSU.
Middle Tennessee (2-0-0) is coming off of an offensive showcase as it defeated Jackson State, 6-2, on Thursday evening in Nashville. Sophomore Abbie Brown sealed the match for MT with a pair of late goals to put the Tigers away for good.
Brown is the only multi-goal scorer through two games for the Raiders, but has been joined on the scoresheet by Haley Nishimoto, Sam DeBien, Kerri Cook and Salera Jordan.
Freshman goalkeeper Sydney Chalcraft has seen a bulk of the action between the goalposts, earning a shutout in her collegiate debut before holding Jackson State to two goals on Thursday.
“We’ve been training really hard this week,” junior midfielder Cameron Cox said. “We know it’s a big game and we’re honored to get to play the No. 1 team in the country. We’re really looking forward to a competitive and hard-fought game.”
Florida State (2-0-0) has a pair of quality wins already on the season, defeating No. 8 Texas A&M as well as Vanderbilt, with both wins coming on the road.
Deyna Castellanos leads the Seminole attack with two goals in two games so far and is joined on the offensive by Megan Connolly who netted nine goals a season ago.
Cassie Miller mans the goalkeeper position for the Seminoles and has a pair of shutouts under her belt already this season, but has been tested very little with only four saves to her credit in 2016.
The meeting marks the third time since 2006 that Middle Tennessee has hosted a top-ranked Division I opponent in Murfreesboro.
The Blue Raider baseball team hosted No. 1 Vanderbilt in 2011, falling in a narrow,1-0, defeat while the women’s basketball program hosted No. 1 Maryland in 2006 in another nail-niter which the Raiders dropped, 80-76.
Sunday’s meeting between MT and FSU is set for a 2:02 p.m. start and will be broadcasted live on MT10 and streamed for free on CUSA.TV/RaiderVision.
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