CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's soccer team will open Southern Conference action this weekend against Mercer and The Citadel.
 
GAMEDAY vs. MERCER
Date: September 21, 2018
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Video: N/A
Live Stats: GoMocs.com
 
McKINNEY'S TAKE ON MERCER
"Mercer's always a really difficult opponent. I'd say they're always one of the more physical sides in our league. I think that they're going to come here on Friday ready to play and attempt to grind out a result on the road. We've just got to match the intensity they bring to the game."
 
 CHATTANOOGA vs. MERCER
This will be the ninth meeting between the Mocs and the Bears with UTC leading the series 4-3-1. Chattanooga won the first three meetings in the early 2000s. Since joining the Southern Conference in 2014, Mercer holds a 1-3-1 record against the Mocs including a scoreless draw last season in Macon.
 
ABOUT CHATTANOOGA
The Mocs are 4-4-1 overall following a competitive non-conference slate. Chattanooga started the year with a 3-1 start before going 0-3-1 over the next four matches then closed out conference play with a 3-0 win over North Alabama for its fourth shutout of the season.
 
Chloe Arnold leads the Southern Conference with 17 points and seven goals and ranks 15^th in the NCAA in both. Masey Fox has three goals and a team-high four assists. Lauren Dluzewski and Bailey Gale each have two goals and Gale is third on the team in scoring with two assists. Chattanooga has gotten scoring from nine different players this season.
 
Melia Correa and Ashton Shields have shared time in goal this season with a combined four shutouts.  Shields has given up just two goals and has a .889 saves percentage through 290 minutes in the net.
 
 
ABOUT MERCER
The Bears are 5-3-2 on the year including a win over former SoCon foe Davidson (3-0). They have shutouts against USC Aiken (7-0), Mississippi Valley State (5-0), Davidson and Alabama State (7-0). Their losses have come against Georgia State, Presbyterian and Austin Peay.
 
Mercer has outscored its opponents 29-9, averaging 2.90 goals per game on 21.6 shots per game. Abigail Zoeller leads Mercer with six goals and five assists for 17 points. Four Bears have three goals each while two others have two apiece. Idris Kyra has four assists and two other Mercer players have three each.
 
Jordyn Ebert has started six games in goal for Mercer with a 0.86 goals against average and 29 saves. She has a 3-3-2 record with three shutouts. Payton Jamieson has four starts and given up just two goals with nine saves and one win.
 
MOCS WRAP UP NON-CONFERENCE PLAY
The Mocs closed out the non-conference slate with a 4-4-1 overall record. UTC started the season with back-to-back wins over Alabama A&M and former SoCon foe Georgia Southern, both by 3-0 margins. After falling 6-1 to the five-time Sun Belt Champion South Alabama, the Mocs rebounded with a 3-0 win over Troy. Chattanooga dropped three of the next four contests then ended non-conference play with a 3-0 win over North Alabama.
 
McKINNEY'S THOUGHTS ON THE NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
"The non-conference schedule served its purpose. We've seen just about everything so far in regards to physicality of our opponents, playing style of our opponents and formations. So we think we're well prepared to deal with a lot now as we hit SoCon play. We've learned a lot about the team. We've had some good results, we've been in overtime games and we've had some poor results where we've had to deal with some adversity. We think that going forward now, we should be prepared with whatever we face."