Oct. 4, 2007

KENNESAW, Ga. - The Kennesaw State women's soccer team will carry its seven match win streak on the road this weekend as the Owls travel to Jacksonville, Fla. for a pair of Atlantic Sun Conference matches. The Owls will face North Florida on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. before traveling a few miles across town to take on the Jacksonville Dolphins on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. Both matches will be televised on ASun.TV.

We're really looking forward to our swing into Florida for this weekend's games," said head coach Rob King. "Like us, both UNF and JU are undefeated in A-Sun play, so there's a lot riding on the results and someone's going to be disappointed on Sunday evening."

Kennesaw State (7-2, 2-0 A-Sun) is coming off a pair of wins in last weekend's opening conference matches. The Owls used a hat trick from forward Caitlin Dingle to down Stetson, 5-2, last Friday before recording their fourth shutout of the season in the way of a 3-0 blanking of conference-newcomer Florida Gulf Coast on Sunday.

While it hasn't been pretty at times, the Owls have managed to stay on a roll in their last seven matches, in large part due to their defensive play. Freshman goalkeeper Katie Piotrowski has been stellar in the net for KSU during the streak, posting a 0.71 goals against average while making 39 saves and recording four shutouts.

"We're not playing at our best yet, but are scoring goals and winning games," added King. "Hopefully, we can raise our level for this weekend and come home with the results we're looking for."

UNF will enter Friday night's match with a 3-6-1 record overall and a 2-0 mark in conference play. The Ospreys downed ETSU, 2-1, last Friday on the strength of two goals from midfielder Elizabeth Gowen. Jessica Jowers, Kady Dearing and Katelin Swift each netted a goal on Sunday to help UNF hold off a late rally to beat USC Upstate, 3-2, giving the Ospreys their first 2-0 conference start since 2005.

The teams are quite familiar with one another dating back to when both schools were members of Division II and the Peach Belt Conference. The Owls hold a 5-1-0 all-time mark against the Ospreys, including a 3-0 victory last season when the two sides met on September 30, 2006 at the KSU Soccer Complex.

Sunday's match with the Dolphins has been circled on the Owls' calendar ever since falling to JU in last year's A-Sun semifinal match, when the Dolphins scored two late goals to down KSU, 2-1. Jacksonville (4-6-0, 2-0) enters this weekend's showdown after blanking USC Upstate 2-0 last Friday and scoring a late goal on Sunday to defeat ETSU, 3-2.

The game should not be lacking offensively as it will feature the league's top two goal scorers and this week's Co-Offensive Players of the Week in JU's Keri Zwikker and the Owls' Dingle.

Zwikker leads the conference with 11 goals in 10 matches and is tied for third nationally with 26 points. Dingle has been the catalyst for the KSU offense as the junior leads the team with eight goals and four assists. The Rockdale, Ga. product leads the league with 52 shots and is 10th nationally with 20 points (2.2 ppg). Her eight goals also ranks her 12th in the nation.

"I think it's getting tougher to go undefeated in our league, but looking at some of the early results, it may not be necessary to do so in order to win the A-Sun this year," said King.

After this weekend's matches, the Owls will play one more road contest at Belmont on October 12, before returning home to host Lipscomb on October 14.