#1 Samford 2, #8 Western Carolina 1
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- The top-seeded Samford University soccer team extended its winning streak to eight-consecutive matches Sunday as the Bulldogs tallied a 2-1 home victory against the Western Carolina Catamounts in the opening round of the 2011 Southern Conference Tournament held at the Samford Track and Soccer Stadium.
"I thought that in the first half we were excellent and played very well," said Samford head coach Todd Yelton. "In the second half, it's not that we played poorly, but Western Carolina just played really well. Western Carolina never quit and we feel fortunate that we didn't give up another goal there at the end of the match to go into overtime."
With the triumph, Samford (12-5-2) advanced to the semifinal round of the eight-team SoCon Tournament where the Bulldogs will square off against the fifth-seeded Furman Paladins on Friday at 4 p.m. (CDT). Earlier on Sunday, Furman knocked off the No. 4-seed Davidson in Davidson, N.C., 2-1, to advance in the SoCon Tournament.
The semifinals and finals of the 2011 SoCon Tournament will be held at the UNCG Soccer Stadium in Greensboro, N.C. The tournament will be hosted by UNCG, but on Sunday, the second-seeded UNCG Spartans were upended at home by No. 7-seed Georgia Southern, 2-1, in first-round action.
"I think that just shows the depth of this league," Yelton said. "You had the seventh-seeded team knocking off the No. 2 seed and then Western Carolina, the No. 8 team, certainly challenged us tonight. The depth and quality of this league makes it, in my mind, one of the tougher leagues in the country."
Samford scored both of its goals Sunday within a 1:17 stretch late in the first half.
At 38:54 into the match, the Bulldogs' Amanda Abbott outran a trio of Catamount defenders to tally her third goal of the season. On the score, which gave Samford an initial 1-0 lead, Shanika Thomas sent a perfectly-placed downfield pass 40 yards down the right flank. Abbott, the Bulldogs' speedy freshman from Marietta, Ga., streaked to the ball and sent it far and to the left of the charging goalkeeper.
Samford's Thomas earned her second assist of the season on the goal.
Less than two minutes later, the Bulldogs struck again as senior Shannon Weathington tallied the first goal of her career at 40:11 to give Samford a 2-0 advantage. On Weathington's game-winning goal, freshman Joy Grove sent a lofting pass into the box where there were numerous players vying for position.
Grove's pass bounced around a couple times and bounded towards the left post where Weathington dove and kicked the ball home for the score.
"That was key for us, because those are two reserves that came on and got the goals," Yelton said. "Amanda did a great job of getting behind the defense and then she did well to finish the goal. Then on Shannon's goal, I thought that Joy did a great job of flicking the ball on and then Shannon was fearless in scoring what turned out to be the game-winner. Obviously, that second goal turned out to be huge for us."
The 2011 season came to an end Sunday for Western Carolina (9-10-1). The Catamounts rattled off nine shots against Samford and were paced by Tara Budnick's third goal of the season in the 68th minute of play. On Western Carolina's lone goal of the match, Budnick headed a pass from Samantha Hodge into the right-hand corner of the net from the left side of the goalkeeper's box.
Hodge, the Catamounts' junior midfielder from Louisville, Ky., tallied her team-leading sixth assist of the season on the score.
Western Carolina outshot Samford 7-5 in the second half and came close to tying the match if it wasn't for a pair of game-saving stops by the Bulldogs' Alyssa Whitehead. Whitehead, Samford top goalkeeper in school history, finished Sunday's contest with five key stops, two of which occurred late to maintain the Bulldogs' one-goal lead.
"There were a couple of point-blank shots there where Alyssa definitely came up big for us," Yelton said. "At this point in the season, if you want to win a championship, then your goalkeeper is going to have to make some of those saves for you."
Offensively, Samford's attack was paced by redshirt freshman Brittany Hoffman. The Bulldogs' explosive native of Knoxville, Tenn., rattled off four shot attempts, including a shot on goal. No one else on Samford's team attempted more than just one shot attempt.
"Every one of our players works hard and they are certainly high-character people," Yelton said. "I certainly enjoy being around them and that's one thing for us is that we want to keep winning because we know that when we're in that locker room after a loss will be the last time that this group will be together. That's why we want to be ready to make it last as long as we can."
Samford has won eight straight matches and has not been defeated since a 2-0 setback at Vanderbilt on Sept. 18. Since then, the Bulldogs have set a school record with a 12-match undefeated streak.
"Our team is playing with a great bit of confidence right now," said Yelton. "At this point in time, it's just survive and advance. I don't think we were our best at times in the second half tonight, but our team found a way to get the win and Furman will be quite a challenge for us on Friday night. They are a quality side, they are well-coached. Rachel Shelnutt is in my mind one of the best players in the league. There will be nothing easy about the rest of the season from this point on."
The Samford University soccer team will next be in action Friday at 4 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs square off against the fifth-seeded Furman Lady Paladins in the semifinal round of the 2011 SoCon Tournament at the UNCG Soccer Stadium in Greensboro, N.C.
#7 Georgia Southern 2, #2 UNCG 1
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Seventh-seeded Georgia Southern got a tiebreaking goal from Sara Oland in the 85th minute as the Eagles eliminated second-seeded UNCG 2-1 in the quarterfinal round of the Southern Conference Women's Soccer Championship at the UNCG Soccer Stadium on Sunday.
With the loss, UNCG finished the season with an 8-10-1 overall record and went 7-3-1 in SoCon play.
GSU (7-10-2) advances to the semifinals of the tournament next weekend, also in Greensboro. The Eagles will face third-seeded College of Charleston, a 3-0 winner over No. 6 seed Davidson on Sunday.
With the scored tied at 1 late in regulation, Oland collected a cross from Alex Murphy and fired a shot far post. The ball went off the hands of diving UNCG keeper Kelsey Kearney, off the left post and into the net to send the Eagles to the semifinals of the tournament for the first time since 2006.
"The first thing I want to do is congratulate Georgia Southern," UNCG coach Steve Nugent said. "They came in here and at the end of the day, they wanted it more than we did. In this game, the game of soccer, it doesn't matter what conference, it doesn't matter what level, if you meet up with a team that's more passionate than you, and you don't play or you don't match that intensity level, irrespective of how many combinations you get or how many looks at goal you get, sometimes that's not enough. Today it wasn't enough against Georgia Southern."
The Eagles drew first blood against the Spartans, with sisters McKenna and Carlee Storey teaming up in just the fourth minute. Carlee Storey sent a corner kick to the back of the 18-yard box that McKenna Storey headed into the lower right corner of the goal to give GSU the early lead.
The Spartans countered in the 21st minute to draw even. After Lauren Hein was taken down in the box, Casey Godwin converted the ensuing penalty kick to make it a 1-1 game. Godwin, a senior defender, scored just her second career goal in her final career contest.
UNCG had the run of play for much of the afternoon, outshooting the Eagles 13-6. The Spartans had three goals called back for various infractions, with Hein having one waved off for an offside violation and another for a handball in the first half. In the second half, Kristin Player also had a goal nullified after an offside call, wasting a beautiful combination of passes from Casey McCavitt to Hein to Player.
With just under five minutes remaining in the first half, senior Jaimey Etten fired a low blast from 25 yards out that GSU keeper Katie Merson was able to wrap up.
Late in regulation, Hein and Ashley Stokes just missed hooking up on a pair of nice crosses from Stokes, as both were just a step out of Hein's reach in front of the goal.
Player had UNCG's last chance in the waning seconds, getting off a shot in traffic that Merson was able to fall on and smother for the save.
Merson finished with five saves, while Kearney finished with one for the Spartans.
The contest was the final one in the careers of UNCG seniors Player, Godwin, Etten, Kearney, Nicole Danford and Alex Perry.
The loss snapped UNCG's nine-match winning streak over the Eagles, which included a 2-1 win in Statesboro, Ga., on Sept. 30 of this season.
UNCG's quarterfinal exit from the tournament was its first since 1999 - which, coincidentally, also came via a 2-1 loss to Georgia Southern in Greensboro. This year marks just the second time that UNCG did not reach the semifinals of the tournament since joining the league in 1997.
The semifinal round of the tournament begins at the UNCG Soccer Stadium on Friday at 5 p.m. with the second game slated for 7:30 that evening. The tournament final will be Sunday, Nov. 6, at 1 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN3.
#3 College of Charleston 3, #6 Elon 0
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - The third-seeded College of Charleston women's soccer team was impressive in a 3-0 win over sixth seed Elon in the opening round of the Southern Conference Championship at Patriots Point on Sunday afternoon.
The win improves the Cougars to 12-7-1 and earns CofC its tied-for-program-best 12th win of the season.
The Cougars advance to the second round where they'll see the seventh-seed Georgia Southern on the campus of UNCG on Friday, Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m.
"It was a great way to start the Southern Conference Tournament," said head coach Christian Michner. "Elon is a very good team, very well coached and organized. We had to be very good today in order to win. As impressed as I am with the number of chances we created and the goals we scored today, I'm equally impressed with our ability to defend and not give up much to a team that's done really well on the offensive side. It was an all-around great performance by our girls. I'm really proud of them."
Hope Atkinson (Rumson, N.J.) netted a pair for the Cougars including the ultimate game winner. Maryam Buazza (Katy, Texas) scored a goal as well. Sarah Cardamone (Downingtown, Pa.) assisted all three goals for the Cougars.
CofC dominated possession in the match and benefited from a 24-6 shot advantage on the day.
The first mark came in the 18th minute when Cardamone sent a ball into the box from the left side of the pitch and Atkinson got her head to it to push the ball into the net.
In the 54th minute, Cardamone did well to keep a ball inbounds along the Elon endline and centered it to Buazza who volleyed the ball home for the 2-0 lead.
Just under three minutes later, Cardamone played a ball down the right side to Atkinson who collected it before the ball trickled out of play. She made a move back into the field of play and fired a shot over the keeper's head and off the far post and in from a virtually impossible angle.
"We have an important week ahead to prepare for whomever we play on Friday night," said Michner. "It's going to be a different atmosphere than we had today and an opportunity for our girls to go out and create their own environment. If we play as well as we can and as well as we have been then I think we have a great chance."
#5 Furman 2, #4 Davidson 1
Davidson, N.C. -- Freshman Hannah Stanifer scored on a rebound with just 2:16 left in regulation to propel No. 5 seed Furman to a 2-1 victory over fourth-seeded Davidson in the opening round of the Southern Conference Tournament on Sunday afternoon at Alumni Stadium.
With the match knotted at 1-1, freshman Alyssa Althoff unleashed a shot from the left side that Davidson keeper Rachel Locke could not hold, and Stanifer pounced on the loose ball to drill home her sixth goal of the season and third match-winner to send Furman into a November 4, SoCon semifinal matchup against either Samford or Western Carolina in Greensboro, N.C.
"This was a great day for Furman women's soccer," said Paladin head coach Andrew Burr. "We played well on the road against a team that was in good form and got a great effort from Laura White, who kept us organized in the middle all day."
Stanifer's match-winning tally was the 18th goal of the year scored by a Paladin freshman and eighth game-winning tally by a rookie in 2011.
"Our freshmen played fantastic today and continue to have a huge impact on this program," said Burr. "We are playing as many as five or six at any given time and they continue to mature and improve."
Furman, which improved to 12-7-2 with the quarterfinal round triumph over the Wildcats, took an early lead when sophomore Ellen Moore scored off of a Colleen Lynch cross from deep on the right side at the 10:38 mark for her first goal of the season.
The Wildcats pulled even late in the half as Stephanie Piperno took a Becca Fisher pass and scored her sixth goal of the year in the 35th minute.
After Furman outshot the Davidson (9-9-2) 10-5 in the opening half, the Wildcats turned up the pressure on the Paladins over the final 45 minutes, but senior Jessica Smith was forced to make only three saves to notch the victory in goal.
"Our back line did a great job of holding us together, especially in the second half, and Jessica made great decision inside the box."
Furman finished with a 14-11 edge in shot attempts and 7-4 advantage in shots on goal. Locke stopped five shots for the Wildcats.
With the win, Furman improved to 6-1-1 all-time versus Davidson in Southern Conference Tournament play and eliminated the Wildcats for the third time in the last five seasons.