With the 4-1 win over Wofford last week, the Bucs secured the conference title for regular season and the top seed going into the tournament.
The Bucs had a bye round for the start of the tournament, so now the team is just waiting until their semifinal match on Friday.
The entire SoCon Tournament is held at Furman University this year, with Furman winning their first round match against VMI.
The Wofford Terriers fell short again, this time to Mercer University in the first round. This means the Bucs will take on Mercer in the semifinal round.
During the regular season, both times the Bucs the Mercer Bears met, the game went into overtime. In their first regular season meeting, the match went into double overtime with a resulting score of 0-0. The second time, when the Bucs travelled to Mercer, the Bucs came out on top 1-0 in overtime.
With the tough SoCon competition this year, it wasn’t uncommon for the Bucs to go into overtime. With the tournament, however, nothing will end in a tie.
With the regular season under wraps, ETSU goalkeeper Jonny Sutherland (Chester, U.K.) was recognized as SoCon Athlete of the Month for October. Sutherland has been a solid keeper for the Bucs for three years now, and he still has another year left with the Bucs.
His season total for saves is at 60, making him the only player in ETSU history to achieve 200 career goals.
He let in only three goals during the month of October, one of which was a penalty kick.
Sutherland and the rest of his team are prepared for their opponent on Friday, and are looking towards another Southern Conference Championship title win.
If the Bucs beat Mercer on Friday, the will face the winner of the Furman v. UNC-Greensboro semifinal match on Sunday in the championship game.
If the Bucs secure another championship, they will secure another automatic bid into the NCAA Division I Tournament.
