SALISBURY, N.C. — The Catawba College men's soccer team welcomes South Atlantic Conference rival Lenoir-Rhyne at Frock Field on Wednesday night to wrap up the regular season.

Last Time Out
- The Catawba Indians' penultimate home match of the season was a 2-0 setback against Newberry last Saturday
- The night was littered with blows as both of the Wolves' goals resulted from lapses deep in the defensive zone – leaving open net – on top of Catawba having its penalty boot get saved and going down to 10 men early in the second half
- Héctor Vara grabbed five saves, his third-best mark of the year, in his 13th career 90-minute match
- Six Catawba Indian seniors were honored prior to the fixture as part of Senior Day festivities

Path to the Postseason
- Catawba's route to obtaining a playoff bid relies on the results of Wednesday's match as well as a few others
- Although Catawba sits in 11th place in the SAC, a win over Lenoir-Rhyne could lift the blue and white into the eighth seed
- The following scenario would put the Catawba Indians in the tournament field: Emory & Henry clinches first place in the league (with some combination of win/draw and Anderson win/draw), Wingate loses to Coker, Carson-Newman and Tusculum play to a draw, and Catawba beats LR
- In the most favorable scenario for Catawba, the squad ties for eighth place with Wingate and wins the tiebreaker if Emory & Henry is the top-seeded team (Catawba-Wingate head-to-head was a draw, Catawba has a better result against the No. 1 seed)

All-Time Series
- Catawba's series with Lenoir-Rhyne is storied and close with the Catawba Indians owning a slim lead at 25-23-5
- At Frock Field, Catawba boasts a modest 12-8-1 advantage over the Bears even though LR has prevailed in each of the last four meetings
- The Catawba Indians and Bears have matched up for the last three regular-season finales; LR won in 2022 and 2023 before a 2-2 stalemate in Hickory last year

Scouting the Bears
- Lenoir-Rhyne is 6-4-3 overall with a 5-2-2 clip against in-conference opposition, locked into top-four seed and a home playoff game
- The Bears have not lost a match since dropping a 4-2 decision against Emory & Henry on Sept. 24, winning five matches with three draws since that tilt
- Hector Taboada tops the lineup at 11 points on five goals and one assist, recording the brunt of his output in a hat trick at Carson-Newman on Oct. 18
- Tomas Fontes ranks 41st in the country for goals-against average, letting in 1.00 goal per contest with a .721 save percentage

Follow Along
- All SAC matches are broadcast live on FloCollege
- Live stats will be available on CatawbaAthletics.com