Gameday: ECU Travels To UCF Thursday Night

Game 13: ECU (6-4-2, 1-3-0) at UCF (5-3-1, 2-0-0)
Date	Thursday, October 4
Time	7:00 p.m. (EDT)
Location	Orlando, Fla.(UCF Soccer Complex)
Information	Game Notes (PDF)
Coverage	Live Stats \| Watch
Social Media	Twitter: @ECUwsoccer Instagram: @ECUwsoccer Facebook: @ECUwsoccer

GREENVILLE, N.C. – With only five games remaining in the regular season, the ECU women's soccer team head to Florida for the final road trip of 2018, starting with a Thursday night matchup at UCF.

"I think most coaches in the conference would say this is one of the toughest road trips with two teams that are consistently at the top of the league," said head coach Jason Hamilton.

ECU (6-4-2, 1-3-0) is coming off its first American Athletic Conference win of the season, which snapped a three-match losing streak. The Pirates took a two-goal lead against SMU behind goals by Daria Draovitch and Madie Knaggs, before holding for a 2-1 win. ECU had been coming off a pair of overtime defeats that saw the Pirates let go of early leads. ECU is now in a tie for seventh place in the conference with three points and is one spot out of the sixth and final playoff spot.

Along with scoring the opening goal against SMU, Draovitch added a goal in ECU's 3-2 overtime loss against Houston. With the four points on the week, the junior from Cary, N.C., earned a spot on the AAC's Weekly Honor Roll. She becomes the sixth ECU player to be honored by the conference this season and is now third on the team with eight points on two goals and a team-high four assists. Leading the Pirates in scoring are Courtney Cash and Jenna Dages, who both have 11 points on five goals and an assist. ECU has five players with game-winning goals this season, as Dages has a pair and Jayda Hylton-Pelaia, Tori Riggs, Grace Doran and Knaggs all have one apiece.

UCF (5-3-1, 2-0-0) is coming off a pair of league wins last weekend and is on a three-match winning streak overall. Stefanie Sanders and Zandy Soree have led the way offensively for the Knights, racking up 17 and 14 points, respectively. Vera Varis has played the majority of the minutes in net for UCF and has a goals against average of 1.33 and has a pair of clean sheets.

"UCF played a very challenging non-conference schedule to prepare themselves," Hamilton said. "They are a talented group and will want to take advantage of being at home."

UCF leads the all-time series between the two programs 11-2-2. The Knights have won two straight in the series, winning 4-0 last season and 3-2 in double overtime in 2016. Cash and Marianna Shurina scored in that 2016 loss. The last ECU win in the series came in 2015 when Kendall Frey scored with only 31 seconds remaining to claim a 1-0 win. ECU is 0-6-1 on the road against UCF in the series.

"We know the results we need in these last few weeks and we've shown what we can do at times," Hamilton added. "We are young and still learning what it takes. Being consistent is one thing we need to strive for in order to move forward as a program."

Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m., on Thursday night in UCF Soccer Complex. Fans can stream the match here and follow live stats here.

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Players Mentioned

Courtney Cash

Jenna Dages

Grace Doran

Daria Draovitch

Jayda Hylton-Pelaia

Madie Knaggs

Tori Riggs

Marianna Shurina

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