South Carolina takes on Old Dominion in regular season finale
Hoping to finish the season out strong, the South Carolina men’s soccer team will face Old Dominion Saturday in its regular season finale.
After an up-and-down start to the season, the Gamecocks have put themselves in a position to be one of the top teams in C-USA heading into the conference tournament.
South Carolina is fresh off a 4-3 upset of No. 10 UAB and the team has only lost once in its last 11 matches.
Currently standing at 4-1-3 in the conference, the Gamecocks are only behind New Mexico and Old Dominon in the standings.
Saturday will serve as a chance for South Carolina to cement its place in the top tier of C-USA, as the Gamecocks have already beaten one of those top-two teams when they upset New Mexico in an overtime thriller last month.
As South Carolina prepares for its shot at the Monarchs, coach Mark Berson is highly optimistic about his team’s chances because of its recent run of success.
“All year, this team has battled and fought,” Berson said, “We’ve got some big wins over some top teams in the conference and that’s helped us a lot. The guys are playing very, very well so we’ll head into this game and the rest of the season and see what we can make of it.”
In South Carolina’s last time out, an impressive individual performance from sophomore Jeffrey Torda boosted the Gamecocks to the 4-3 win. The midfielder scored South Carolina’s first goal of the match, then buried the equalizer in the 85th minute with the Gamecocks down 2-3. Torda’s outing Sunday earned him the honor of AgSouth Player of the Week.
“I just go out there and help the team wherever I can,” Torda said, “We did a good job of creating opportunities and executing on those chances. I was just fortunate enough to find the net when I did.”
According to Berson, the Gamecocks will need to continue its hot streak on Saturday against the Monarchs, who only have two conference losses on the season.
“Old Dominion is a team that is very well balanced,” Berson said, “From top to bottom they really don’t have too many weaknesses, which is why they’re one of the top teams in the league with us. It’s going to be a challenge for us, a big game for sure. But like I said our team has played extremely well especially in big games, so we’ll line up against them on Saturday and see what happens.”