JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – For the fourth time in the past seven seasons, Carson-Newman women's soccer (8-6-3) is headed to the South Atlantic Conference semifinals and will battle #6 Lenoir-Rhyne (14-0-3) tomorrow morning in Matthews, N.C. for a spot in the SAC title game.
This semifinal berth is the fourth time under head coach Simon Duffy that C-N has made it to the final four of the SAC tournament and the second time in the last three seasons.
Carson-Newman advanced in the SAC tournament by defeating the number four seed Anderson on Saturday evening. Trailing 1-0 at halftime, Krista Nielsen leveled the match in the 58th minute with her second goal of the year. Going to double overtime, Felicia Frick gave C-N the lead in the 108th minute with a shot over the top of the goalkeeper. Her double overtime goal is the first for C-N since Holly Talbut Smith scored in the 101st minute in a 2-1 win over Catawba back on October 27th, 2018. That being the last time C-N won a double overtime game. C-N's overtime win is the first in the SAC tournament since November 3rd, 2017, when the Eagles knocked off Tusculum in the SAC quarterfinals.
"That was a very tough team in Anderson," Carson-Newman head coach Simon Duffy said. "To go down there in the postseason and to come away with the win was great. It was a bit stressful for the situation I was in. Looking back on it, the statistics and everything, we deserved what we got.
For the second straight game, Carson-Newman trailed at halftime and came back and won the match. Prior to this two-game streak, the Eagles were 0-4 facing halftime deficits and just 3-15-3 under Duffy.
The Eagles had three players recognized on the all-conference teams yesterday morning. Abbie Zander (Baneberry, Tenn.) was a first team selection, Felicia Frick (Eschen, Liechtenstein) on second team and Addie Henry (Chattanooga, Tenn.) on the third team. The trio has combined for seven goals and ten assists this season.
Playing at a neutral site for the first time this season, Carson-Newman is looking to secure its first win not home or away in the last four seasons. The last neutral site victory came on Nov. 2nd, 2018 versus Catawba in the SAC quarterfinals.
"This time last year, the two semifinal favorites went out," Duffy said. "It doesn't matter where we are in the rankings or where we are in the league. Limestone was the sixth seed last year and went down there and won the conference tournament. We need to emulate something like that and go in and have a belief in ourselves that we are going to push on. It's just competing over 90 minutes and we can get it done."
Lenoir-Rhyne heads into this South Atlantic Conference semifinal match with the longest active winning streak among DII schools at twelve games and with its highest ranking of the season at number six. Across all three divisions, it is the fourth longest streak. LR is one of seven teams still unbeaten this season.
The Bears squeezed past Mars Hill in the quarterfinals winning 2-0. They scored a late first half goal and an early second half goal to defeat the Lions at home.
Along with winning the regular season title, LR took home three other individual honors for their impressive season. Elin Hansson was named offensive player of the year after leading the conference in goals scored with 14, eleventh most in the country. Ria Acton earned defensive player of the year honors after leading the conference in assists with 12 this season. She also has helped lead the defense to eleven shutouts in 17 matches. The final award was Dean Ward earning coach of the year honors after leading LR to an unbeaten regular season.
"They are a good team they are well-coached, and they are full of individual fantastically well-coached players," Duffy said. "I think for us, we battled and competed extremely well in that game (earlier this year). A couple of individual errors from us that we kind of gifted goals to them. We are hoping we don't do that again. When we played at LR here at home, we were excellent. If we can eliminate those little errors that led to the goals, I really like our chances going into the game on Friday."
During LR's twelve game-winning streak, it has outscored opponents 38-5. 15 players have scored for an offense that ranks top 20 in the country in many different categories.
Lenoir-Rhyne has won five straight matches against Carson-Newman and leads the all-time series 25-13-4. Seven of the last nine meetings have been decided by one goal. C-N and LR's last two meetings in postseason play came during the 2009 and 2011 seasons. C-N won the 2009 meeting to win the SAC title, while the Bears won the 2011 matchup to advance to the SAC semifinals.
These two squads faced off in early October, with the Bears leaving Mossy Creek with a 3-0 road victory. LR held C-N to just one shot in the match, its lowest output in a game under Duffy.
The Eagles and Bears take the field tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. from the Sportsplex at Matthews. The game can be streamed on FloSports with a subscription. Fans can also follow along to @CN_Eagles on Twitter and Instagram for in-game updates.
