GREENVILLE, S.C. – No. 2 seed Furman (7-0-2, 6-0-2 SoCon) knocked off No. 3 Chattanooga (7-3-1, 6-2-1) in the second semifinal match of the Southern Conference Women’s Soccer Championship, held in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday afternoon. With the 1-0 win, the Paladins advance to their 16th championship final, held next Friday at 2 p.m. CT in Birmingham, Alabama, and will face Samford (8-1-3, 7-0-2), the regular-season champion, No. 1 seed and host. The teams played to a 1-1 draw in the regular-season meeting at Furman on March 21.

The championship match is the second straight between Samford and Furman and the second consecutive featuring the top two seeds in the tournament, while also being the 11^th straight championship featuring one of the two squads. Top-seeded Samford won 1-0 in 2019 to claim its fourth Southern Conference Championship title in the first and only championship final featuring the Bulldogs and Paladins. Furman, the owner of six SoCon titles, will make its league-leading 16^th appearance in the championship final and look for its first title since a 1-0 double-overtime win against Mercer in 2015.

Furman and Chattanooga played 87 scoreless minutes on Sunday afternoon before the Paladins got a goal from redshirt sophomore forward Kyndal Anderson, her fourth of the year, on assists from Nieva Gaither, the SoCon Freshman of the Year, and Isabella Gutierrez, the SoCon Player of the Year. Anderson also netted the game-winner in the 2-0 regular-season victory against the Mocs, also on passes from Gaither and Gutierrez.

With 87:27 on the clock, Gaither, at the top of the 18 yard box, found Gutierrez on the left side of the goal, setting the junior midfielder up for a perfect pass to Anderson, who was crashing in for the goal from point-blank range.

Furman finished with 10 shots, four of which were on goal, while Chattanooga tallied 10 and three, respectively. Furman took six corner kicks to Chattanooga’s three. The Paladins split goalkeepers as freshman Addison Corn, a SoCon all-freshman selection, started the first half and recorded a save, while sophomore Nora Sampson played the second half and tallied a pair of saves. Junior Ashton Shields played all 90 minutes in goal for the Mocs and recorded three saves in the loss.
 
2020-21 Women's Soccer Championship
Semifinals
Friday, April 9 (Birmingham, Ala.)
Match 1: No. 1 Samford 6, No. 4 Mercer 1

Sunday, April 11 (Greenville, S.C.)
Match 2: No. 2 Furman 1, No. 3 Chattanooga 0

Final
Friday, April 16 (Birmingham, Ala.)
Match 3: No. 1 Samford vs. No. 2 Furman, 2 p.m. CT