FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern women's soccer team (4-6-1, 0-2-1 SSC) is set to host the No. 17 Tampa Spartans (11-1-1, 1-1-1 SSC), Tuesday, Oct. 15 at the NSU Soccer Complex. Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m.
The Sharks will be looking to get back to the success they had at the beginning of the year, when they won four out of their first five matches, including a win against nationally-ranked Lenoir-Rhyne.
These teams met Sept. 21 in Tampa, where the Spartans, then ranked No. 5 in the country, beat the Sharks 3-0. After a defensive battle through most of the first half, Tampa's Kaley Ward scored the first goal of the match in the 44th minute, giving the Spartans a 1-0 lead heading into the half. Ward tallied another goal in the 59th minute, before Gabby Russo scored Tampa's final goal eight minutes later. The loss ended the Sharks' three-game win streak.
The Sharks are most recently coming off a 2-0 defeat by a strong Saint Leo squad. The Lions were led by freshman Arielle Kabangu, who scored a goal in each half. Kabangu leads the country in goals scored this season, with 15.
Tampa, who was once ranked as high as No. 4 in the nation, has hit a little bit of a midseason slump, going 1-1-1 through their first three Sunshine State Conference matches. The Spartans are coming off of a 110-minute, back-and-forth battle, with the Lynn Fighting Knights, a game that ended in a 2-2 draw on Saturday. Lynn scored the game-tying goal in the final minute of the second half to send the match into overtime.
The Spartans have been led by last year's SSC Freshman of the Year Cici Gonzalez. Gonzalez is second in the SSC in goals scored with 10. NSU's Malin Broberg (Sr., Stockholm, Sweden) has nine goals on the year, good for third best in the conference.
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