Nov. 16, 2007

Birmingham, Alabama - The University of Tulsa's top-seeded and seventh-ranked men's soccer team downed fourth-seeded South Carolina, 4-1, in the Conference USA Championship semifinals on Friday night at West Campus Field in Birmingham, Alabama. With the win, TU moved to 14-2-2 on the season, while South Carolina fell to 11-6-2 overall.

Tulsa will play seventh-seeded Florida International, who eliminated defending champion SMU and Marshall en route to the championship game, in the C-USA Championship game at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Junior midfielder Joe Salem scored in the 26th minute and TU took a 1-0 advantage into the break. Classmate Eric DeFreitas scored off a cross from Jose Parada to extend the lead to 2-0, then Parada netted his sixth goal of the season to take a 3-0 edge.

The Gamecocks did not give up and were still keeping an aggressive pace in the final 30 minutes. Mark Wiltse put Carolina on the scoreboard in the 75th minute.

Tulsa sophomore defender Kilian Poeschk scored his first goal of the season for the final 4-1 decision.

Scoring Summary
Tulsa			1	3	-	4
South Carolina	        0	1	-	1
Individual Scoring
Joe Salem (Tulsa) at 25:52 (Hunter Christiansen)
Eric DeFreitas (Tulsa) at 52:42 (Jose Parada)
Jose Parada (Tulsa) at 58:10 (Eric DeFreitas)
Mark Wiltse (USC) at 74:20 (unassisted)
Kilian Poeschk (Tulsa) at 87:58 (Zach Nulisch)
Goalkeeper Saves 
Dominic Cervi (Tulsa) - 4
Jimmy Maurer (USC) - 2