Kennesaw State advances to the ASUN Conference tournament after defeating Lipscomb 1-0 in Saturday’s competition, despite their slow start in conference play.
“I’m so proud of this team tonight,” said head coach Benji Walton. “We’ve had an up-and-down second half of the season, but these ladies have kept their head up and continued working. We are happy to get this win for our seniors and provide them the opportunity to play another home game.”
The Owls scored the only goal of the game five minutes before halftime. Morgan Harrison delivered a corner kick that bounced around in the box and was eventually redirected from Abby Roth to Carly Pressgrove, who scored the goal.
The goalkeeper position has been shared between Tiffany Sornpao and Mady Carter for most of the season. Sornpao got the start on Saturday and recorded her sixth clean sheet of the season.
“It’s one of the best feelings as a coach when you see your team click as a group,” Walton said. “Tonight’s win came about because of their resiliency to not quit on each other and fight for one another.”
Lipscomb was the number one seed in the ASUN Conference, and they shared the regular season title with Florida Gulf Coast.
The Owls are the No. 4 seed going into the playoffs and will compete against North Florida in the first round this Sunday.
The Owls suffered their final loss of the regular season to North Florida 1-0 on Oct. 8 at home. Since that game, they have gone 2-0. The Owls suffered a midseason slump but have since emerged and appear to be getting hot as the season winds down.
“We weren’t playing bad soccer, we were just having trouble finding the back of the net,” Walton said. “As the season’s gone on, we’ve made some adjustments to try to improve our scoring as we move forward.”
The Owls kick off against North Florida at 1 p.m. at Fifth Third Bank Stadium.
“I hope Owl Nation will come out to the Bank next Sunday and support us as we kick off our postseason,” Walton said.
