We returned from a fairly arduous trip through the midwest against the #2 and #3 team in the SCAC going into the final weekend of the regular season. As the top team through the first eight conference matches, the target on us would prove to be sizable but we would not fall in the end.
On Friday evening, the first half of play would include chances but little danger in either direction. The second half of the match would start slow for us, enabling them to put some pressure on our back line. Just under an hour into the match, a shot would inadvertently deflect off a defender's arm, creating a goal-scoring opportunity for the home side that they would capitalize on. Six minutes later, Katy would slip between two defenders and take her opportunity off the far post....Abby was just alert enough to read the bounce across the face of the goal and secure the equalizer with a single touch. A few minutes later, Abby again would take a ball, this time near the edge of the D and smack one past the outstretched keeper and off the inside of the far stanchion to put us in the lead. With just over ten minutes to play, Jordan dropped a nice ball in behind their back line to Katy who would tuck one away to make the game 3-1. 90 minutes would end giving us the three points and a chance to play on Sunday against Centre for the conference championship and the AQ to the NCAA's.
Sunday was and absolutely stunning day in Kentucky providing a fantastic setting to win a championship. There was so much riding on the match with it being Senior Day as well as the final match of the regular season and the post-season berth on the line. The game was not pretty, but Abby's goal was magic!! Scoring her third goal in two matches, she took a throw-in off a bounce and crushed it off the underside of the bar and into the goal for the game winner. That was all that we would need on the day and all we would get, though both sides saw good scoring opportunities.
Off to the NCAA's........
-LK
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