By: by Matthew Farhadi
Tournament Guide
A-Sun TV Link (Free Video Coverage)
KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State women’s soccer team knows that they are getting closer to their goal when they started the 2010 season, which was to win an Atlantic Sun Conference Championship. With only two more matches standing between the Owls and their season-long goal, the Black and Gold will face one of their toughest tests of the season when they take on No. 1 seed Jacksonville in the A-Sun Semifinals on Thursday night at 7 p.m.
This semifinal matchup between the Owls and Dolphins is intriguing on several different levels. These two teams have combined to win three of the last four A-Sun Championships, and out of all the teams that are currently members of the conference, Jacksonville and Kennesaw State are tied for the most tournament titles with two each.
Kennesaw State will look to continue their postseason momentum that they built from their thrilling first round victory over East Tennessee State on Saturday night. The game was played to a scoreless tie through 110 minutes of soccer, but since it's tournament time the two squads advanced to a shootout.
Senior
Caroline Austin gave the Black and Gold a good start to the shootout, netting her kick in the top-left corner to give them a 1-0 lead. Terri Miller stepped up to take the first penalty kick for ETSU, but she was stopped by Staci Pugh to keep the 1-0 lead for Kennesaw State.
The two teams then went on to trade a pair of makes to make the shootout score 3-2.
With the game hanging in the balance,
Kristin Kranick and Pugh stepped up big for the Black and Gold. Kranick converted the eventual game-winning penalty kick right down the middle giving the Owls a 4-2 lead, and Pugh finished the win off by saving Kelly Brinkman’s penalty kick to send the Black and Gold into a wild celebration.
The victory was the Owls first ever postseason shootout win, and head coach Rob King knows his team will have to take it up another level come Thursday night, as a No. 4 seeded team has never defeated a No. 1 seed in the history of the A-Sun Tournament.
“We're looking forward to Thursday's match. It's actually a nice feeling going into an A-Sun tournament game without the added pressure of being the No. 1 seed, and playing in front of an expectant home crowd,” King said. “We didn't give a very good account of ourselves against Jacksonville in the 1-0 loss earlier this season. We've changed a few things since then, we're healthier this week than we were last week, and we've stopped letting in goals. It should be a terrific match.”
The Black and Gold are 1-1 all-time against Jacksonville in the conference tournament and both of the games went into overtime. The Owls win came in the semifinals of last year’s tournament in which senior Caitlin Dingle scored the game-winner just six minutes into the first overtime. The Dolphins victory in the series came in the 2006 semifinals as they scored just 46 seconds into the first overtime to advance to the championship game despite the Owls outshooting them by a margin of 35-6. In each of these instances the winning team of this matchup has gone on to win the A-Sun Championship.
The match is scheduled to kickoff at 7 p.m., and Owls fans please feel free to follow the team through free A-Sun TV video coverage.
