Knoxville, TN - Yet another weekend was spent in the Knoxville area for the Grace Tigers men's soccer team, this time presenting two challenges against Top-10 teams in the NCCAA DII.

A big-time match-up against last year's National Champs Pensacola Christian College on Friday afternoon. Things were looking great early for the Tigers, as they stormed out to a 2-0 lead on the Eagles and held all the momentum. Pensacola would go on to show their persistence and big-game experience, eventually battling back to a 2-2 tie and forcing overtime. They would eventually put in the golden goal to give the Tigers their first loss of the season in NCCAA DII play. Brett Arnold and Jared Farnsworth scored the two goals for the Tigers, both on assists from Zak TerMeer.

"We knew how tough the weekend would start with our opponent, Pensacola Christian, being the reigning national champion and one of the top teams in the country," said Grace Head Coach Dustin Buchanan. "We also know we have quality in this team and we expected this match to be of that caliber.  It absolutely played out that way.  If a neutral were watching this match on Friday, they would have been in for a real treat.  The match had everything, quality, speed, drama.  I thought we played well, but disappointed to lose in double overtime with only five minutes left.  They guys gave 100% for 120 minutes."

Saturday brought the challenge of Mideast regional rival Johnson University-TN for second time in two weeks, and the game ended in a very similar result, with the Tigers grinding out a 3-2 victory over the Royals. Coach Buchanan added some thoughts on Saturday's win, and noted some impactful individual contributions from some of the players.

"Going into the next game vs Johnson on Saturday we knew it would be a challenge.  We made some changes to the line-up.  The match started a bit rough with a slow start.  The boys' legs took a bit to get going and we found ourselves in a 0-2 hole at halftime.  I give our players a lot of credit.  They made the adjustments and dug deep, found another gear and did not let the intensity of the match the day before be an excuse.  They played wonderful.  Johann Vega had a huge influence on the game with his work ethic and work off the ball and it seemed to spark the entire team.  We had a massive boost in the second half with Evan Gort and Payton Jeltema.   Evan came on and was an absolute game changer for us.  You love a player like Evan because he will do whatever is asked and carry out a game plan to a T.  He did this and also used his individual creativity to massively impact the game getting a goal and assist.  Payton, on the opposite side really gave us an energy. So much credit has to be given to the guys for coming together, and giving everything to get a result.  Really proud of them.   I know without a doubt this weekend has prepped us for the Regional Tournament.  Two very tough games and an experience from the weekend we have learned a lot from."

Finishing off the regular season undefeated in the Mideast Region, Grace's #1 seed will earn them a BYE to Saturday's Regional Championship in Knoxville at 3:30 pm, facing the winner of Friday's semifinal game between #2 Johnson University-Tennessee and #3 Campbellsville University-Harrodsburg.