BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Georgia Southern Women's Soccer fell, 1-0, at
Samford on Sunday afternoon (October 23rd). The win for Samford gave the
Bulldogs their first Southern Conference regular season championship. Despite
the loss, Georgia Southern qualified for the 2011 Southern Conference
Tournament with losses by both Wofford and The Citadel on Sunday afternoon
The Eagles qualify for
postseason play for the first time since 2006 after missing the SoCon
Tournament for four consecutive seasons. Georgia Southern will be seeded
seventh in the tournament and travel for a first round match against UNC
Greensboro or College of Charleston.
"Samford is an extremely
good team," said head coach Lindsey Vanderspiegel. "We are never content with a
loss, but I felt like the team fought well. We are ecstatic about the end
result of the day and our team making the playoffs for the first time since
2006. The girls are excited for the challenge of postseason play and we are
ready for whoever we get drawn against."
Samford's (10-5-2, 8-0-2
SoCon) Adrienne Mancino put the Bulldogs ahead, 1-0 in the 20th minute with a
long-range goal. She got the ball off a long throw in by Kaley Blanton and
scored off a shot from 35 yards out.
Georgia Southern's (6-9-2,
4-5-1 SoCon) offense was led by three shots by senior Sara Oland (Evans, Ga.) with two on target. Junior Courtney Collins (Mason, Ohio) mustered
GSU's other shot on goal to go with two shots in the match.
GSU's goalkeeper, Katie
Merson (Albuquerque, N.M.) allowed one goal, but made five saves against a
barrage of 14 Samford shots.
Georgia Southern wraps up
regular season play on Wednesday night against Davidson starting at 7 p.m. The Eagles
play next weekend in the Southern Conference Tournament on the road against
either UNC Greensboro or College of Charleston on Sunday, October 30th.
Fans can follow their
Eagles at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com or receive short updates at
facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics or on Google+ at
gplus.to/GSAthletics.
