AU ROUNDUP: Soccer shuts out Bama

TUSCALOOSA — Rebecca Howell scored for the third consecutive game, leading Auburn to a 2-0 win over Alabama in the annual Iron Bowl of Soccer.

The win was the fourth straight for Auburn (9-7-3, 6-5-0 SEC) over Alabama (6-10-1, 2-7-1 SEC), and gives the Tigers eight wins in the last 10 meetings between the two teams.

“It is a good quality result for us. It wasn’t the prettiest of games and we didn’t always play great but we did enough to get the job done,” Auburn head coach Karen Hoppa said. “It’s never easy in Tuscaloosa so we’re always happy to come out of here with the win.”

Howell nearly collected her eighth goal of the season in the 10th minute as she took a shot from inside the six following a Heather Havron corner but Alabama goalkeeper Justine Bernier was well positioned to make the stop. She would not be held off the board for long though as she collected her fourth goal in the last three games in the 23rd minute when she took two shots on Bernier following another Havron corner, getting stopped the first time before converting her own rebound for the 1-0 lead.

“Heather had a great corner. I had just missed a goal earlier and we got another corner and when we got the second corner I knew I was going to score,” Howell said.

Howell’s goal was the 22nd of her career, which ties her with Tiffany Smith (1993-96) and Chrissy Culver (2001-04) for fifth all-time in Auburn history. It was also the 65th point of her career, which ties her with Kristen Schier (1994-97) for sixth in Auburn history.

Katy Frierson made it 2-0 Auburn in the 31st minute when she launched a shot from 35 yards out over the Alabama defense and a back-peddling Bernier, scoring her fifth goal of the season and the 14th of her career. Of her 14 career goals, 12 of them have come against SEC competition and she now has 43 career points (14 goals, 15 assists) in 41 matches.

“The coaches did a great job of scouting and told us that the keeper played far off the line so when I got it I took a look to see if she was going back and I just tried to kick it over her head,” Frieron said.

Auburn goalkeeper Amy Howard was tested 14 minutes into the match as she made spectacular diving save on a Grace Lawson shot, diving to her right to knock it outside the post. The freshman finished with five saves on the night, giving her 106 for the season, which is second all-time for a single season and sixth for a career in the Auburn record books. She also earned her fifth shutout of the season.

The win clinched the sixth seed in next week’s SEC Tournament for Auburn and eliminated Alabama from tournament contention. Auburn will play at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Orange Beach Soccer Complex but will not know who it will face in the match until after the Alabama-Ole Miss match on Sunday in Oxford, Miss.  An Ole Miss win on Sunday would give the Rebels the third seed while a loss or a tie would put South Carolina into the third spot.

Auburn is on a three-match winning streak heading into the SEC Tournament and has not been scored on in the last 259 minutes since giving up a goal in the 11th minute at Tennessee.

Cross country heads to SEC Championships
The Auburn cross country squads continue their 2009 season with the SEC Championship today in Oxford, Miss.

The meet, hosted by Ole Miss, will be held on the universities golf course and will consist of a men’s 8k race that begins at 10 a.m. followed by the women’s race at 11 a.m.

The meet will serve as a warm-up prior to the Nov.14 NCAA South Regional Meet in Tuscaloosa. The forecast for the race looks to be perfect, with sunny skies and a high of 70 degrees being predicted.

The women enter the race ranked behind Florida, Tennessee, and Georgia, who occupy three of the top-four spots in the most recent NCAA South Region poll. Alabama ranks a spot behind the Tigers with a No. 6 regional ranking, while the Vanderbilt Commodores are No. 7.

For the fourth time in four races, Holly Knight was the top finisher for the Tigers at the NCAA Pre-National meet, coming in 21st place with a time of 21:10.4. Additionally, she was the top-SEC finisher in the race in what was her first 6k race of the season. Knight will look to improve on her runner-up finish at the SEC Championship from a year ago as she finished 11 seconds behind meet champion Catherine White of Arkansas (20:18.52).

Stephanie Barnes finished second for the Tigers at Pre-Nationals for the third time on the year with a time of 21:32 to place 44th. She will look to hold steady as Auburn’s No. 2 runner as she has been for much of the 2009 campaign.Senior Laurel Pritchard was Auburn’s other top-20 finisher for the Tigers in last season’s SEC Championship, as she clocked a 21:34.39 to place 20th.  She has improved in each SEC Championship in her career, as she placing 37th as a freshman and 35th as a sophomore.

Junior Allison Smith will run in her third championship meet, as she placed 81st as a freshman and 65th as a sophomore. Fellow junior Cathryn Albright will run in her second SEC Championship as she placed 84th with a time of 24:08.26.

The surging Auburn men’s team moved up five spots in the most recent south region poll, as the team was ranked No. 8 prior to their sixth-place finish at NCAA Pre-Nationals. Alabama figures to be the team to beat, as the Crimson Tide are ranked No. 7 nationally and hold the No. 1 spot in the latest regional poll. Tennessee and Florida occupy the No. 4 and No. 5 spots in the regional rankings, followed by No. 7 Georgia.

Junior Ben Cheruiyot, placed 10th at the Pre-National meet after he clocked a time of season-best 8k time of 24:03.5. Cheruiyot has now finished first in every Auburn meet this season. He enters today’s race knowing something about cross-country titles, as he captured the NJCAA National title for Rend Lake C.C. in 2007. The time is Cheruiyot’s best of the season, as he previously ran a 25:05.4 at the Wisconsin adidas Invite.

All-American Felix Kiboiywo, running in his second meet of the season at NCAA Pre-Nationals, placed 14th with a time of 24:08.4. Both runners finished No. 1 and No. 2 as SEC runners, as the closest finisher was Alabama’s Julius Bor who placed 15th. Kiboiywo placed fourth at last season’s meet with a time of 23:26.98, behind a pair of former teammates, Girma Mecheso who won the race (23:11.26) and Elkanah Kibet (23:20.35) who placed third.

As a team last season, the Tigers finished second with 62 points, 30 points behind meet champion Alabama.

A pair of Auburn seniors will look to play a large role today in Jean-Pierre Weerts and Scott Novack. Novack will be competing in his fourth and final championship meet. In 2006, he was Auburn’s top-finisher at the race with a 48th place finish, and placed 42nd as a sophomore in 2007. Last season, he played a key part in Auburn’s runner-up finish, coming in as the Tigers fourth finisher with a v22nd-place finish.

Weerts has been a steadying force for the Tigers this season, as he has finished been the Tigers second and third finisher on two occasions each. Last season, he placed 39th with a time of 25:22.22 at the league meet after missing the majority of the 2008 season due to injury.

Frierson earns academic honor
Katy Frierson was named a First Team Academic All-District 4 choice while Stephanie Fransoso and Heather Havron were both named to the Third Team, it was announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America on Friday.

Frierson, a sophomore from Birmingham, has a 3.90 GPA while majoring in political science. She enters Friday’s match at Alabama second on the team with 16 points having scored four goals and assisted on eight. She will now be placed on the national ballot for Academic All-America voting.

Fransoso, a senior from Evans, Ga., has a 3.73 GPA with a major in biomedical sciences/dentistry while Havron, a sophomore defender from Maitland, Fla., has a 3.77 GPA in business.

The accolades were the first for all three players.