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FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Kennesaw State soccer team dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker to Florida Gulf Coast as Julia Roddar scored the game-winning goal in the 65th minute at the FGCU Soccer Complex on Friday night.
With the loss, the Owls (9-7-1, 5-2-1) fall to a tie for third place in the conference standings with North Florida, while FGCU (11-3-3, 6-1-1) sits in second place and will play Mercer on Sunday to decide the A-Sun regular season champion.
“Obviously it was a tough loss, but I thought we battled very well,” said Head Coach
Rob King. “I don’t think we were as composed on the ball as we need to be. We didn’t really connect on our passes tonight and we had a hard time keeping the ball up top and then allowing our midfielders to get up close enough to generate good, quality chances. All credit to Florida Gulf Coast, though. They played very well, very well coached side and we hope to meet them again at some point.”
With both teams entering the match trailing Atlantic Sun Conference leader Mercer by a single point in the standings, the match lived up to its importance, with intensity from both sides apparent throughout the match.
After a physical first half, which saw redshirt-sophomores
Alma Gardarsdottir (Grindavik, Iceland/Fjolbrautaskoli Sudurnesja) and
Jewelia Strickland (Fayetteville, Ga./Alabama) earn yellow cards in the final 10 minutes of the half, the pressure to score continued to build.
FGCU tallied the game’s only goal 20 minutes into the second half as Ashley Ciesielczyk received the ball from Shea Rhoney on the right side. She then crossed the ball to Roddar, who finished to the left past KSU senior goalkeeper
Lauren Roberts (Rome, Ga./Marshall) for the go-ahead goal.
The Eagles outshot Kennesaw State 14 to seven, with only two Owls shots on goal to FGCU’s 10. Freshman midfielder
Hannah Churchill (Bristol, England/Filton College) led the KSU offense with four shots, including one on goal. Roddar tallied four shots for Florida Gulf Coast.
KSU earned four corner kicks in the match, while FGCU had nine. Both teams combined for 23 fouls on the day, with FGCU’s Ally Kasun and sophomore midfielder
Nicole Calder (Adelaide, Australia/Westminster) also shown yellow cards in the contest’s final minutes.
Roberts collected eight saves in the loss, while FGCU’s Brittany Brown tallied two saves.
Kennesaw State will wrap up the 2012 regular season on Sunday as the Owls travel to Deland, Fla., for a 1 p.m. ET contest against Stetson.
Keep up with Owls soccer this year by following KSU on Twitter at @
KSUOwlNation and @
ksuOWLSsoccer, or by liking Kennesaw State Owls on
Facebook.
Kennesaw State University is celebrating 30 years of intercollegiate athletics during the 2012-13 academic year.
