No. 7 Columbus State Women’s Soccer Drops Heartbreaker 1-0 to Lenoir-Rhyne

COLUMBUS – Top seed Columbus State ended its season in heartbreaking fashion Sunday afternoon as the Lady Cougars fell 1-0 to fourth seed Lenoir-Rhyne in the second round of the NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship.  CSU closes the season with a 19-2-1 record while Lenoir-Rhyne improves to 18-2-1.  The Bears move on to play Armstrong Atlantic State next weekend in the Southeast Region final.  AASU defeated UNC Pembroke 1-0 in Savannah, GA earlier in the afternoon.

Both teams came out of the gate tentative and trying to get a feel for the game.  The first shot of the match didn’t come until the 16th minute off the foot of Kaelia Frazier for L-R.  Late in the first half, Kelsey Bass played a ball over the top to Melinda Bush.  The speedster got to the ball at just the same time as the Lenoir-Rhyne goalkeeper, but wasn’t able to poke it past her.  Neither team had any other threatening chances in the first frame.

Columbus State came out more aggressive in the second half putting the Bears defense under duress several times.  A trio of seniors hooked up on a potential go-ahead goal five minutes into the second half, but a questionable offsides call nullified the Stephanie Parrish goal.  They kept pressing forward minutes later as Parrish headed a ball past the goalkeeper off her line, but Leslie Mathews was unable to get to the ball before it was cleared out.  Another close call came off a Stephanie Lowery blast from about 22-yards out.
A foul was called on CSU just outside the penalty box setting up the game-winning goal.  Catherine Hauck chipped the ball to the far right side of the goal and the ball floated into the upper-ninety portion of the net for a 1-0 Bears lead with 15:33 remaining in the contest.  Lenoir-Rhyne went into defense mode from that point packing their end of the field limiting the Lady Cougars offensive attempts.

Caitlin Scruggs upped her record to 11-1-1 making four saves in the match while Willi Babillis suffered her first loss of the season.  She made eight saves in the contest.  Lenoir-Rhyne outshot Columbus State 12-8 while CSU had a slight 4-3 edge in corner kicks.