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CofC and Davidson to Meet in Sunday's Final
Davidson 1, UNC Greensboro 0
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Lauren Conner's goal in the 19th minute lifted No. 4-seeded Davidson past top-seed UNC Greensboro, 1-0, in the second semifinal of the 2009 Southern Conference women's soccer tournament. The Wildcats advance to the league's championship match, scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon at UNCG's Soccer Stadium in Greensboro, N.C.
Conner's goal came off an assist from Kyri Bye-Nagel. Bye-Nagel fired a shot that was stopped by UNCG's Alex Perry. Bye-Nagel chased down the rebound on the left touchline and lofted a pass back across the goal mouth to Conner who headed the ball inside the right post. It was just Conner's second goal of the season and the fifth helper on the year for Bye-Nagel.
UNC Greensboro's Cat Barnekow nearly tied the game with 23 minutes remaining in the second half when her shot from the top corner of the 18-yard box deflected off the crossbar and bounced away.
The Spartans (13-7) outshot the Wildcats, 5-4 in the first half. Baxa made two saves in the opening period while Alex Perry made two saves for the Spartans.
UNC Greensboro had 14 shots in the second half compared to one by Davidson. Baxa had five saves for the Wildcats.
A shot by Kristin Player with less than four minutes remaining was saved by Baxa and proved to be UNC Greensboro's last chance.
Davidson (11-9-1) is making its first appearance in the championship match since 2005.
College of Charleston 0, Samford 0
(CofC Advances on PKs, 6-5)
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Morgan Benz connected in the sixth round of penalty kicks to send College of Charleston to the championship match of the 2009 Women's Soccer Championships via a 6-5 advantage on penalty kicks. College of Charleston and Samford played 110 scoreless minutes before advancing to the shootout.
Both teams connected on their first five penalty kicks before advancing to a single-round format. CofC freshman goalkeeper denied Samford's Brittany Gordon on the sixth shot which opened the door for Benz and the Cougars to claim the lead.
Hannah Gmerek, Annie Pease, Katie Kerr, Emily Morgan and Julie Romanik also converted penalty kicks for College of Charleston.
Paige Lanter, Cindy Spiker, Amber Cress, Shannon Healy and Leah Leppert connected for Samford before Gordon missed in the sixth round.
College of Charleston (12-6-2) had 13 shots compared to eight by Samford (12-1-5).
The Bulldogs appeared to get on the board early, but the goal was overruled because of a handball. The teams traded shots throughout the game, but no one could find the back of the net.
Katie Tate had three saves for the Cougars, and Alyssa Whitehead had two for the Bulldogs.
Samford took six corner kicks, while College of Charleston had none.
The Cougars took two shots in the first overtime that both went wide, while their one shot in the second overtime was high.
It was the second straight season that Samford was knocked out in the semifinals of the conference tournament. College of Charleston advances to the championship match for the first time since 2002.