Carson-Newman Advances To Women’s Soccer Southeast Region Finals; Catawba Falls To Columbus State

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - The Carson-Newman women's soccer team advanced past the second round of the NCAA Division II tournament Sunday with a 1-0 victory over UNC-Pembroke at McCown Field.

The Lady Eagles (16-5-1) now advances to the Southeast Region finals, where they will play the winner of top-seed Columbus State in Tampa, Florida on November 21 at 2:30 p.m. UNC Pembroke ends its season at 19-3-1.

Despite the cold weather and muddy playing field, both the Lady Eagles and Lady Braves pushed through to make a close match. Carson-Newman outshot the Lady Braves 16-8 overall.

Senior goal keeper Whitney Beverly had seven key saves for the Lady Braves, which kept them in the game. Carson-Newman standout, freshman keeper Lauren MacKenzie (Barrie, Ontario, Canada) shielded four shots.

After twenty-five minutes of scoreless play, the Lady Eagles snuck in a goal over the head of UNCP keeper Beverly. Senior Brittany Moore (Lenoir City, Tenn.) shot from the far left side of the eighteen for the sole unassisted Lady Eagle goal.

The Lady Braves came back hard after the goal, serving several balls in the face of the goal. C-N keeper MacKenzie kept the net empty.

During the second half, both teams played with intensity but the entire 45 remained scoreless. The Lady Eagles outshot UNCP 11-4 in the second half.

Lauren MacKenzie (Barrie, Ont., Cana.) led the Lady Eagles in goal with four saves. Trenna Howell (Oak Ridge, Tenn.) posted a team-high four shots, while Moore and Lydia Wright (Nashville, Tenn.)had three apiece.

UNC-Pembroke Head Coach Lars Andersson

"I would never blame the weather. Carson-Newman is a well coached team and they played well defensively. They gave our forwards very few opportunities to score up top. They battled better than we did today in the second half and won in the midfield. Carson-Newman is an excellent team and I wish them all the best."

Carson-Newman Head Coach Phil McNamara

"We needed to start with offense today. At this stage you are not going to play an average team. Both teams are strong in the regional and we knew it was going to be a battle. We had a strong schedule this year, which allowed us the privilege of hosting this round of the tournament. The important thing today was to take advantage of the fact that we didn't play on Friday. We were rested and prepared for the game. W had better possession in the second half which limited the opportunities for Pembroke. Now we will look to Columbus State on Friday and prepare for another tough battle against a quality opponent."

Columbus State 2, Catawba 0

COLUMBUS, GA -- Top-seeded Columbus State got a pair of first-half goals and defeated Catawba 2-0 in the semifinals of the 2008 NCAA Division II Women's Soccer Southeast Regional Tournament at the Walden Soccer Complex on Sunday afternoon. The Lady Cougars, ranked third in NCAA II, improve to 20-3-1 and advance to face Carson-Newman in the regional final next week. The Catawba Indians end their season at 16-5-2.

Gina Goforth got CSU on the board first in the game's fifth minute. The junior forward broke away and ran down a long pass from Kim Gaughan in the box and beat Indians keeper Lindsay Webster (Hopkinton, MA/Hopkinton HS) one-on-one for her 18th goal of the season. The goal came at the 4:35 mark in the contest.

The Lady Cougars got an insurance score in the 30th minute. Rachel Walthall took a pass from Melinda Bush and fired a shot that caromed off Webster and back to Walthall, who knocked it in for the goal. That score came at the 29:30 mark and gave CSU the 2-0 lead.

CSU dominated play for much of the second half, out-shooting the visitors 12-2. Catawba had one goal disallowed on an offsides call midway through the period that would have tightened the margin to one. Neither of the other two shots they took in the half were on goal.

In all, CSU had 23 shots on the day, and despite the two scores, Webster was stellar between the posts for the Lady Indians as she collected 11 saves. Her counterpart, CSU's Monica Sanchez, collected two saves, both of which came in the first half as Catawba was limited to eight shots. CSU held a 5-2 advantage in corner kicks.