By: by Jessica Steadman
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KENNESAW, Ga. – In front of a chilled crowd on Senior Night, the Owls gave their three outgoing veterans a night to remember as Kennesaw State defeated Campbell, 2-0, on Saturday evening at the KSU Soccer Complex to capture their third Atlantic Sun Conference regular season championship.
It’s great to win the conference again this year,” said Kennesaw State head coach
Rob King. “Winning it three out of four years shows the consistency of the program so we’re very excited about that.”
With the victory, Kennesaw State (9-6-0, 7-3-0 A-Sun) not only captured the regular season title and a first round bye in the conference playoffs, but also earned the right to host the conference tournament’s semifinals and championship match.
After an emotional pre-game ceremony honoring seniors
Maylee Attin-Johnson,
Caitlin Dingle and
Bridget Gaughan, the Owls and their seniors wasted no time making sure they would be conference champions for the third time in four years.
Attin-Johnson and Dingle did all the offensive damage for the Owls as they promptly provided all the scoring in the match. Attin-Johnson gave the Black and Gold a 1-0 lead in the third minute when she headed a corner kick past Jamie Panfil and shifted the advantage towards the Owls.
“This season I haven’t been scoring a lot,” said Attin-Johnson. “But to get a goal on Senior Night is such a great feeling and to make the goals we scored in the first half stand up makes it more special.”
Dingle would continue the quick dismantling of Campbell (9-8-2, 4-4-2 A-Sun) when she gave the Owls a two-goal lead in the sixth minute. Dingle took a shot from the top of the penalty box that hit off the crossbar, but rebounded directly back to her and she headed in a line drive past a diving Panfil for the final margin of victory.
“We put a lot of pressure on them early, which is what we wanted to do,” added King. “We also didn’t give them many chances throughout the match. We did enough to get the win and that’s what it was all about tonight.”
The Owls dominated the match with continued pressure as they applied more intensity on the offensive end even after taking the early two-goal lead. Kennesaw State would end up with 17 shots in the match including nine in the first half as they tripled the number of Campbell shots.
Staci Pugh was impressive in goal for the Owls as she posted her fourth shutout of the season with a four-save performance. Pugh came up with a pair of tremendous stops in the second half including stopping a Marissa Miller blast in the 72nd minute.
“This was a great way to celebrate Senior Night,” said Gaughan, who was once again a key component in the Owls seventh shutout of the year. “It seemed like tonight was going to be an end to something, which in a way it was, but with winning the regular season championship and hosting the tournament here it doesn’t quite feel likes it’s the end. We’ve got a lot more to do.”
The Owls will host the 2009 Atlantic Sun Conference Women’s Soccer Championships on Nov. 5-7 at the KSU Soccer Complex. The semifinals will be on Thursday, Nov. 5 with the finals taking place on Championship Saturday, Nov. 7 with times to be determined.
