GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – On the final day of the regular season, Carson-Newman women's soccer (9-3-4, 7-2-2) played to a 1-1 tie with rival Tusculum (9-3-5, 3-3-5) at Pioneer field on Wednesday evening.
"Disappointed overall with how the match ended," Carson-Newman women's soccer head coach Simon Duffy said. "Up 1-0, I thought we were comfortable enough. Just disappointed and frustrated all in one. We live to fight another day. Our focus has to be on Saturday because our NCAA tournament spot is not a guarantee. Wingate is a good team; we have to be ready to play."
The first shot of the match came in the 5th minute, as Marja Enste forced a save from Eagles goalkeeper Laura Germes.
After 11 days off, the Eagles wasted no time getting back in the scoring column. Off the TU shot attempt, C-N countered the other way. Just 30 seconds later, sophomore Nellie Bryneus fired a perfect cross into the box, where junior Savannah Fields took one touch and sent it into the bottom right corner of goal to get the Eagles ahead in the 5th minute. The goal was Fields's second this season. Bryneus recorded her third assist.
Germes made another stop in the 11th minute off another Enste shot to keep the Eagles lead intact.
C-N kept up the pressure in the first half. Senior Addie Henry and junior Carina Wust both fired shots on target forcing saves from Pioneers goalkeeper Grayson Patterson.
Neither team sent a shot on goal in the final 23 minutes of the first half and the Eagles led 1-0.
In the 53rd minute, C-N had an excellent sequence. Henry passed to Bryneus who gave it back, for a shot from just outside the 18, but Henry's shot went high over top the cross bar.
The Eagles totaled three corner kicks in the first 20 minutes of the second half, but was unable to come up with an insurance goal.
In the 68th minute, after a C-N defensive takeaway, TU's Brianna Garcia committed a hard foul on Eagles defender Jente Kuper. Garcia was shown a straight red card for the foul. The Eagles would play the final 22 minutes of the match with a player advantage.
In the 77th minute, junior MJ Park sent a shot from the left side of the box that forced a Patterson save.
Off a takeaway, TU went on the attack. Defender Chayse Stonebraker started up the left side, cut back middle and fired a shot over top of Germes and into the back of the net, to tie the match at 1 in the 80th minute. The shot was the first and only shot on target for the Pioneers in the second half.
TU had the only shot in the final ten minutes of the match.
Carson-Newman is the number three seed in the South Atlantic Conference tournament. With a win over Coker this evening, Wingate earns the six seed.
The Eagles will play as host to the Bulldogs on Saturday at McCown field. The quarterfinal match will begin at 5:00 p.m.
Be certain to follow Carson-Newman athletics on twitter at @cn_eagles for live updates.
The game can be streamed on FloSports with a subscription.
