Sixth-seeded Charlotte defeated No. 3 Cincinnati, 2-0, for the second year in a row to advance to Saturday's semifinal against UAB. The 49ers had goals from Pete Palommino and Steven Traeger, while keeper Josh Beachem made eight saves defensively.

In the first game, Saint Louis sophomore Alex Matteson scored a pair of goals to lead the Billikens to a 2-0 shutout of USF. It is the Billikens’ sixth straight trip to the conference semifinals.

Following a record day of rainfall in Louisville that postponed action, the tournament finally got underway Friday.

Top-seeded Memphis will face Saint Louis (9-7-1, 5-3-1) on Saturday, November 13 at 1:00 p.m. UAB, the No. 2 seed, will face Charlotte (11-6-1, 5-4-0) at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Six of the 10 C-USA teams advance to the league tournament. The final will be aired on the Conference USA Television Network. Don Russell will call the play-by-play, and Bill McDermott provides the color commentary. Conference USA's official website, www.ConferenceUSA.com, will provide updates, box scores, recaps and photos.

Quotes from Game One

Saint Louis Head Coach Don Donigan

“This game was huge. Before the 2nd goal, it was still a close ball game. South Florida is a very dangerous team, I’ll give them credit. We just defended. Our team wants to come out and defend hard for 90 minutes and we knew we’d get our chances and we made good on the couple of chances we got.”

“Our goal was to come out and play good defense for 90 minutes. We want to play every second of every minute of a game and I think our guys did that today.”

“We know it’s a long hard weekend, but you just have to take it one step at a time. I think we exerted a lot of energy out there today but we needed to do that to win the game.”

“We are a young team, but you’ve just got to hope your kids can mature and gain from this experience as quickly as possible. These guys have come in with a good wealth of experience and hopefully we can try and continue it. This was an important game for us and tomorrow is even more important. Every game is going to be more and more important.”

South Florida Head Coach George Keifer

“I’m disappointed for the guys. They had a good first half. The first goal we gave up was against a running play. I’d like to take a look at the tape before commenting on it. To give up an early goal like that…Saint Louis was able to sit back and defend. They did a good job of it. It was very difficult to get through with the amount of numbers they had back there.”

“It seemed like who had the wind had a better half. We had it in the first half and Saint Louis had it in the second half. It always plays a factor. I still think we gave up a bad early goal, but we had a couple of chances in the first half and we hit the post in the second half.”

“I think the team will be disappointed. I think more than one guy was flat today, but they’ll know that. I don’t need to tell them that.”

Quotes from Game Two

Charlotte Head Coach John Tart

“We didn’t create a lot of chances, but obviously we put two balls into the goal. We defended very well, and if you can defend well at this time of the year you’ve always got a chance. The difference was that we were able to score a few goals.”

“I give Cincinnati a lot of credit because I think they put us under a good bit of pressure. Obviously, they bring a lot of players up and its always a dangerous situation, but I thought our players handled it well.”

“The key to the game was the first goal, no question about it. The key to the game was scoring early in the first half and because of that it made Cincinnati have to be a little bit more direct, which was kind of predictable and we defended well.”

Cincinnati Bearcats Head Coach Hylton Dayes

“I think you gotta give Charlotte a lot of credit for scoring two goals. I thought our guys played hard and I thought we created chances, especially in the first half. We couldn’t seem to get one in and then the ‘kiss of death’ is when you give up a early goal in second half and now all of the sudden you have to change the game. I feel bad for my seniors because I thought that they gave a good effort.”

“On the day, they took their chances and we created a lot. We just couldn’t seem to get one in. You’ve got to give them credit but I think our inability to finish in the first half came back to haunt us. We take our hats off to Charlotte, its tough to beat a good team twice.”

“Overall I thought we played well enough but we made too many mistakes in the back and on counterattacks and that enabled them to get two goals. Ultimately that is what showed up on the scoreboard.”

A complete schedule of the 2004 Conference USA Men's Soccer Tournament follows.

2004 CONFERENCE USA TOURNAMENT MATCH SCHEDULE

Friday, November 12
Match 1 - (5) Saint Louis 2,(4) USF 0
Match 2 - (6) Charlotte 2, (3) Cincinnati 0

Saturday, November 13 (Semifinals)
Match 3 - (1) Memphis vs. Winner of USF/Saint Louis 1 p.m.
Match 4 - (2) UAB vs. Winner of Cincinnati/Charlotte 3:30 p.m.

Sunday, November 14 (Finals)
Match 5 - Semifinal Winners 2 p.m. (C-USA Television Network)

All times are Eastern.
All Games played at Cardinal Park Soccer Stadium, Louisville, Ky.