JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Things started super well, but did not stay that way for Carson-Newman (5-5-2, 4-4-1) as it fell short in its hopes of ruining an unbeaten season, falling 4-1 to #2 Catawba (12-0, 7-0) Saturday night.
"It was a terrific start and we've had good starts the past few games," Carson-Newman head coach Simon Duffy said. "It just seems we downed the tools after that for some reason. You cannot do that against the number two team in the country. We competed with them, toe to toe for the first seven, eight, nine minutes and then we didn't track runners and didn't defend properly. A team that is as dangerous as they are will do what they did. I'm okay with being beat by a better team, but the way we went about it in the first half, in my eyes, was not good enough. We were very good at times, but just could not find away consistently, unfortunately."
On the game's first shot, Selina Jud (Wilderswil, Switzerland) had room to fire a shot, and did so sending it past Ashley Hughes into the bottom right corner of goal to give C-N the early 1-0 lead in the 4th minute. It's the earliest goal since Savannah Fields scored in the 5th minute against Tusculum on October 26, 2022.
It only took ten more minutes for the nation's best scoring offense to strike back. Sydney Jimmo played a ball to Helen Summerell who sent a shot into the bottom left corner to level the match at 1 in the 13th minute.
Summerell nearly struck again four minutes later but had her second shot of the game hit the post. After three more shot attempts, the Lady Indians scored for a second time as Bree Ehmer found Jimmo who scored her 15th goal of the season give Catawba the lead at 2-1.
Catawba capped the first half scoring with a Bree Ehmer goal in the 37th minute to go up 3-1 at halftime. Berna Kabakci (Zeddamn Netherlands) made her first save of the night in the final minute of the half on a Morgan Delair shot.
Summerell struck again in the 72nd minute. After initially have a shot saved by Kabakci, she tracked down the loose ball and easily sent a ground shot in the back of the net to put Catawba up 4-1.
Carson-Newman went nearly 50 minutes without a shot attempt, until Jud got one off in the 74th minute off a corner kick. Following the deflected shot, Annika Fend (Herxheim, Germany) sent a ground shot toward Hughes who made the easy snag. The Eagles final shot of the night came in the 82nd minute when Molly Bukiewicz (Beavercreek, Ohio) shot a ball at goal.
Carson-Newman held Catawba to a season-low one corner kick, a group that entered the match averaging the second-most corner kicks per match in the country.
The Eagles were outshot 16-7 and 7-3 on goal, holding Catawba to its second lowest shot output of the season.
Duffy's crew takes a two-week break from conference play and returns to action at McCown Field on Wednesday October 18th for a non-conference match against Bluefield State. Kick off is set for 5:00 p.m.
