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  Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Men's Soccer 		SIUE Men's Soccer
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Higgins
Brian Higgins

 November 28, 2005

Men’s Soccer Ready For Match With Franklin Pierce
         EDWARDSVILLE, ILL -- The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville men’s soccer team has waited a year to get back to Wichita Falls, Texas.
         After falling in the national championship game last season, the fourth-ranked Cougars are just two games away from winning their first national title since 1979.
         SIUE, 16-2-3 overall, will tangle with 15th-ranked Franklin Pierce in the national semifinals of NCAA Division II men’s soccer on Friday at 2 p.m. on the campus of Midwestern State University. The game can be heard live on 88.7 WSIE FM and SIUE Web Radio at http://webradio.siue.edu.
         “This is what you coach for,” said SIUE men’s soccer coach Ed Huneke. “For them to get this kind of reward and for us to all share in it is the special part of this job.”
         The winner of the contest will advance to the national championship game to face the winner of Fort Lewis/Lynn on Sunday at Noon.
         Franklin Pierce has a 15-5-5 record entering the contest. The Ravens, the New England Region Champions, are in the Final Four after wins over Le Moyne (5-0) and Dominican (1-0 OT), and advancing on penalty kicks 3-2 over the New York Institute of Technology (1-1 2OT).
         The Cougars will have had a 13-day break between their win over Carson-Newman and the contest with the Ravens.
         “We need to balance things this time of year,” said Huneke. “The vast majority of our work is done tactically. Now it is a matter of having them sharp and healthy for game day.”
         The Cougars will look to senior Brian Higgins (St. Louis, Mo.) for leadership. One of the team’s captains, Higgins will make his 83rd career start on Friday. That will break the school record of 82 set by Chris Knopf from 1987-1990.
         “Brian has made an impact since his first year here,” said Huneke. “Every one of his years here we have played a lot of games including postseason games and it is a great accomplishment for him.”
         SIUE enters the contest ranked fourth in NCAA Division II with a 0.50 goals against average, while notching a school-record 13 shutouts.
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