Winthrop men’s soccer reaches Big South championship

Max Hasenstab’s hat trick highlighted four second-half goals as top-seeded Winthrop defeated fourth-seeded Campbell 4-0, in the semifinals of the Big South Conference Tournament at Bryan Park.

With the win, the Eagles (11-6-1) advance to Sunday’s championship game at 2 p.m. and will face the winner of the second semifinal game between Radford and High Point.

After the Eagles grabbed a 1-0 lead in the 54th minute, Hasenstab caught fire as he made it 2-0 in the 60th minute when he ripped a free kick into the top left corner of the goal. Just over 11 minutes later Hasenstab netted another free kick as this time he bent the ball over the wall and into the right corner of the goal.

Hasenstab completed the hat trick in the 76th minute as he was set up around the spot by Nil Vinyals and struck the ball first time as he beat the goalkeeper low and to his left. Hasenstab now has 13 goals on the year, which passes his career-best of 12 in 2014. It’s also the second career hat trick for Hasenstab in the Big South Tournament.

Senior Jordi Lluch opened the scoring in the 54th minute as he converted a penalty kick for his 11th goal of the season. The penalty was earned by Jordan Stoddart as he won a foot race to the ball with the goalkeeper and as he dribbled by was taken down by the keeper with a defender closing in.

Not only was it the fourth straight win for the Eagles, but it’s the third-straight shutout as they’ve not allowed a goal in the 355 minutes and 41 seconds. Fabian Broich made two saves to keep the slate clean.

Volleyball: Seniors Rachel Lenz and Hjordis Eiriksdottir had strong performances Friday evening to help propel the Winthrop volleyball team to a 3-0 sweep of Presbyterian on Senior Night. With the victory, Winthrop finishes the regular season with a 13-17 overall record and a 7-7 mark in the Big South.

The Eagles will now wait the seedings to be announced by the Big South Conference for the upcoming conference tournament. Tournament play begins on Thursday and will be hosted by High Point University.

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 9:48 PM with the headline "Winthrop men’s soccer reaches Big South championship."