3 months ago
There are just four men's soccer teams still alive in the Atlantic Sun. The Mercer Bears are on that list.
"There's a lot of teams out there that are done with their seasons and we're not," Mercer head coach Brad Ruzzo said.
On Monday night they were back on their home field, this time in preparation for the Campbell Fightin' Camels. The Bears grabbed a 3-0 win over North Florida on Saturday night in the first round of the A-Sun Tournament. Now they set their sight on the top-ranked Camels.
Campbell has been one of the conference's elite teams in recent years and are hoping for a return to the title match for the second season in a row.
"They're beatable," junior midfielder Ian Cameron said. "They are the alpha dog in the conference, they're the strongest team and have been so a chance to go there and play them on their field is just really exciting."
The Bears lost 1-0 to the Camels at home in October. They'll hope to reverse that result Thursday at 7:00 p.m. in hopes of playing deeper into the month of November.
"We're out here still November 9th or whatever day it is training and that's what it's all about right now," Ruzzo said. Just continuing to keep training and keeping your season alive and that's the mentality and attitude that we're gonna go in there with."
Campbell is the host team of this year's Atlantic Sun final four thanks to their top finish in the regular season. The winner of Thursday's game plays in the championship match on Saturday.
