JEFFERSON CITY, TENN. – The second-ranked Eagles collected their seventh-straight South Atlantic Conference Tournament victory on Tuesday afternoon after they defeated eight-seeded Newberry for the second time this season by a final of 2-0.
"That's one of the better games we have moved the ball this season, what a great effort," Coach Simon Duffy. "Credit to Newberry for their second half effort, they made us work for it."
Lauren Wade collected the eventual game winner in the 38th minute, collecting a loose ball off a Holly Talbut-Smith shot that was blocked. The senior forward let the ball fall at her feet and took one step into it as it split three Newberry defenders en route to her 12th goal of the season.
The goal would be her fifth game winner of the 2017 season, moving the Coleraine, Northern Ireland native into a three-way tie in program history for most game winners in a season.
With the goal, she also passed fellow assistant coach Julianne Herrity on the all-time career points list with 80, moving into fourth all-time at Carson-Newman.
"Holly did a good job taking on a few players there," Wade stated. "I saw the goalkeeper at one side and just thought I could cut it the other way, and happy days it went in."
The Eagles (15-0-1) dominated the first half of play registering 14 shots to the Wolves one shot, which game in the final seconds of the 45 minutes. C-N outshot Newberry 25-6, recording their sixth-straight shutout, which is now a program record.
In the 72nd minute, newly entered freshman Emilee Futrell gathered a loose ball in front of the net and drilled home her seventh goal of the season, the most of freshmen in the league.
An initial pass to Magda Mosengo to the center of the box brought multiple defenders on the junior forward. Mosengo flipped a pass to Sydney Spadafora who unleashed a left-footed shot on net that was initially stopped by Wolves goalkeeper Jayleen Gant, trickled towards the end line to the right of the net.
Futrell raced past the Wolves and got to the ball before Gant could recover.
"It was awesome, great finish from Wadey and Emille," Duffy added. "Both of them were put away with authority."
Freshman goalkeeper Jayleen Gant, who is one of the better goalkeepers in the conference, recorded 10 saves including some acrobatic stops that prevented the Eagles from tacking on more.
Newberry (7-11) was led by its leading goal scorer in Alyssa Ortega who ripped off three shots in the contest, tying her second-lowest output of the season since she collected three against C-N on Sept. 16.
Jackie Burns' lone save came in the waning seconds, as the net minder recorded her 10th clean sheet of the year. Three of those ten have been a combined shutout with Jasmine Rizk.
The Eagles will face the winner of fourth-seeded Tusculum and fifth-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne on Friday, Nov. 3 in Rock Hill, S.C at 4:30 p.m.
