GRANVILLE, Ohio — The
Earlham College women’s soccer team made the most of its first appearance in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament on Tuesday night as the Quakers advanced to the championship contest with a 1-0 win over No. 14 Denison University.
Joy Doucette scored the only goal of the match at 84:38 to give the fourth-seeded Quakers (12-6-1) the victory over the top-seeded Big Red (15-3-2). It was her team-high seventh goal of the season.
“It was another second half victory on the road, which is hard to do,” Earlham Head Coach Jocelyn Keller said. “
Denison was the fastest and most skilled team we’ve played all year.”
It was also the first win over
Denison in Earlham’s history since the series began in 1989 when the Quakers joined the NCAC. Prior to Tuesday,
Denison had won 19 of the 21 contests with a pair of ties.
Earlham will now play the winner of Wednesday’s
Allegheny College (11-5-2, 4-2-2) at
Wittenberg University (9-4-5, 4-2-2) match for the conference tournament title. The championship match will be Saturday with Wednesday’s winner hosting the affair. The time will be determined later.
“We feel good about what is coming on Saturday wherever we play,” Keller said of her squad that is 3-0-1 in their last four contests.
"This squad has worked hard day in and day out and they deserved such a tremendous win during their first conference appearance."
Denison led 22-8 in shots and 6-3 in corner kicks on Tuesday, but the second half totals were much closer. The Big Red had a 10-8 edge in shots, while each team had three corner kicks.
“They outplayed us in the first half, but we stepped it up to win in the second half and we attacked,” Keller said. “In the first half, we were more reactive and defensive.”
“Our defense was stellar throughout the entire game and particularly in the first half,” Keller added. “All four backs had a lot to deal with because their forwards were fast, skilled and active.”
Keller praised the entire defensive unit especially the leaders,
Franny Newport and
Allie Zeller. Earlham goalkeeper
Megan Holthaus had five saves for the Quakers,
NCAC Tournament Notes: Earlham’s 12 wins tie the school record for victories in a season, which has been accomplished in each of the last two years.
Denison had not lost to a conference team this season as the Big Red claimed their eighth regular season championship. The Big Red beat Earlham 2-0 on Oct. 14.
No matter which team the Quakers play on Saturday, they will have to reverse a regular season loss. Allegheny won 1-0 in
Meadville on Oct. 17, while
Wittenberg defeated Earlham 1-0 in
Richmond on Oct. 20.
Wittenberg has won the last three tournament championships and received the conference’s automatic bid to advance to the NCAA Div. III National Tournament.
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