Union Owls Insider
Ryan Sheedy
The Union County Lady Owls (9-1-2, 5-1) are in for a tough match this afternoon, home against Brookdale Community College (7-4-2, 5-1), Thursday, October 12, 2017, at 3:30 pm. The Lady Owls are having a great season under first-year coach, Angie Correia, and are sitting second in both the Garden State Athletic Conference and Region XIX, trailing only Rowan College at Gloucester County.
The Lady Owls, after a strong month of September, are currently 2-0 in October, and are currently on a four-game winning streak. Union has a rather high goal percentage, converting on 70% of their shots, and averaging close to 4 goals per game. Through twelve, they have 44 goals on the year, with two more games to be played in the regular season.
On top of a solid offense, the Lady Owls also have one of the best defenses in the NJCAA. Their goals against average is the best in the Nation at 0.33 goals conceded a game. A solid attack, can't win consecutively without a strong back four, and that is exactly what this Union squad has.
Brookdale, after three-peating in the NJCAA Nation Championships from 2013-15, they have dropped off quite a bit. This year, even though they are sitting just one spot below the Lady Owls in both the region, and conference, their play hasn't been as consistent as recent years. With the loss of their core group of players that had the experience of winning a National Championship, they have a new group of players that do not have that knowledge to help lead their team to another championship. They have the worst goals-per-game average in the past five years, and are conceding close to two goals a game, which is over three times the average of their three championship years.
Though Brookdale is a formidable foe for the Lady Owls, and a good challenge to test the legitimacy of this squad, the Lady Owls should have the weapons to put this one away, and go into their final game of the regular season with a win.
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