MONTREAT, N.C. - CIU women's soccer traveled to North Carolina to take on the No. 4 seeded Montreat College in the quarterfinal round of the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Women's Soccer Championship Tournament. Despite taking down the Cavaliers 3-1 earlier in the season, the Rams were granted a lower seed at No. 5. CIU took an early lead, but Montreat forced a tie in the first frame to stand until the final buzzer. A goal in the first half of overtime gave the Rams the 2-1 win over Montreat to move on to the tournament's next round.
Match Summary: The Rams' offense was firing on all cylinders as Avery Long took the game's first shot less than two minutes in. This was blocked, resulting in a corner kick. Lily Jackson's attempt off this corner sailed high, preventing them from getting on the board.
Montreat responded with several shots of their own, which Hailey Resetar handled in goal. After the Rams' backline saved another shot, Callie Rowe got CIU on the board off an assist from Avery Long and Mazzie Leos (11:35).
Both teams came close to adding to the scoreboard with attempts off corner kicks, but Montreat found the back of the net to even out the score (32:37). Resetar picked up another save to keep the score tied going into intermission.
Thais Roberto took the first shot of the second half, and the Cavaliers' keeper blocked it. Resetar hauled in two more shots before Mercy Berkemeyer's header sailed over the crossbar (73:13). Jackson came close to scoring on a corner kick from Mazzie Leos, but the attempt was also blocked. Resetar tallied another save 30 seconds before the final buzzer to force the game into overtime.
It was Marisa Dill with the game-winner off of a corner from Haley Hernandez quickly into the first half of overtime (95:36). The Rams' defense prevented the Cavaliers from getting an opportunity to even out the score in these extra ten minutes. However, in the last ten minutes, Montreat got off two shots–one that Resetar gathered in and one that sailed high to secure CIU's 2-1 win.
The win is the Rams' first AAC quarterfinal victory in program history.
Coach Kara Lail said, "Couldn't be more proud and happy for the team. Montreat is a quality team, and beating a team twice in a season is tough. We executed our game plan well, and Hailey and Mars came up big when it counted. Excited to make program history to head to the semi-final!"
Up Next: CIU is now 11-5-1 on the season and will take on No. 1 seeded Truett McConnell in the AAC semifinals on Tuesday, Nov. 7, in Cleveland, Ga.
