HICKORY, N.C. – Facing one of the stronger teams in the Southeast Region, Clayton State (11-7, 6-5 PBC) fell 1-0 at Lenoir-Rhyne (13-3-1, 9-1-0 SAC) in an NCAA Division II women's soccer game on Wednesday, October 29.
Following a first half that saw the Lakers turn away a whopping 14 shots while firing off four of their own, both clubs defense continued to hold fast well into the second 45 minutes. Clayton State would come out extremely aggressive at the start of the final frame, ripping four shots in the first 12-plus minutes. Conversely, LRU would notch only a pair in that same time.
Each of those shots would not result in a goal. What would, would be something that would not come off of a shot at all. With 73 minutes gone by, a pass by the Bears banged off the post and then proceeded to ricochet into the goal off of a Lakers defender, giving Lenoir-Rhyne a 1-0 lead off of an own goal. They would make that fortunate margin hold up the rest of the way as they held on for the narrow one goal victory.
Clayton State was led by junior midfielder Maria Marti Bartis (Girona, Spain) with five shots on the night while junior defender Lucy Cunningham (Liverpool, England) placed both of her shots on goal. Junior goalkeeper Charlotte McCormack (Wexford, England) made seven saves and allowed just the one goal in 90 minutes of action to suffer the loss.
The Bears, managing to win the game without benefit of a goal scorer, were led by Leah Mullins with five shots, including two on goal, and three shots from Garcelle Alequine. Alayna Morris was the beneficiary of the late goal as she made five saves to complete the shutout and move to 9-0 on the year.
"Tonight was a hard loss in a game we could have won," said head coach Gareth O'Sullivan. "Unusually, we had a few players ill prior to the game so it was going to be tough regardless. Full credit to LR. They played well."
The Lakers have now wrapped up the regular season and will enter the Peach Belt Conference Tournament as the sixth seed. They are currently tied with Lander at 18 points, however, the Bearcats now own the tiebreaker following the forfeit of four wins, announced earlier today. Clayton State will face the No. 3 seed, which has yet to be determined.
