Rain delays men's soccer tourney

By Karl Lyles - klyles@heraldonline.com

Winthrop men's soccer team will wait one more day to start the 2009 Big South tournament in High Point, N.C.

Heavy rain forced tournament officials to revise the schedule. The eight-team, single-elimination event will now run on three consecutive days beginning Friday.

The original schedule was to hold first- and second-round matches today and Friday followed by an off day before the championship on Sunday. The tournament is being hosted by High Point at Vert Soccer Stadium.

Winthrop, the fourth seed, will play the first game Friday at noon against fifth-seeded Gardner-Webb.

“We can use the extra day to prepare mentally. The time can't hurt,” senior co-captain Matt Skonicki said.

“It's disappointing not to play,” Matt Lacey, another co-captain, said. “But the last time we played in the rain like this, we lost 4-0 at Elon, so it's a good thing, I guess.”

There is a chance the first-round games could be moved to the turf fields at Rock Hill's Manchester Meadows in the event Vert Stadium's grass field is found to be unable to handle seven games in three days. Big South commissioner Kyle Kallander confirmed Wednesday afternoon that he has talked with Manchester Meadows about the possibility.

“There is a slight chance that could happen,” Winthrop soccer coach Rich Posipanko said. “The goal is to play in High Point. But High Point can't take seven games.”

The conference is looking at turf facilities in Greensboro, N.C. and Asheville, N.C. Kallander said a decision would be made on the location of the first-round games by this afternoon.