Mercer University
East Tennessee State
Women's Soccer Bests Bucs, 3-2, To Advance to SoCon Semifinals
10/31/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
MACON, Ga. – The Mercer University women's soccer team outlasted ETSU, 3-2, on Saturday night to advance to the semifinals of the Southern Conference Tournament.
TURNING POINT
ETSU took a 1-0 lead in the 11th minute and held on to it until Katelyn Dimopoulos knotted the score, 1-1, in the 43rd minute off a free kick. Sarah Daane gave the Bears a 2-1 advantage in the 54th minute when her free kick went to the top right corner of the net. Sydney Brogden scored Mercer's third straight goal in the 76th minute when she took a short shot just outside of the goal off a long pass from Haley McDuffee. ETSU scored in the 85th minute to cut Mercer's lead to 3-2, but the Bears held on in the final minutes to defeat the Bucs.
WOMAN OF THE MATCH
Maggie Cropp made a season-high-tying nine saves, including two on penalty kick attempts from ETSU.
STAT OF THE GAME
ETSU led Mercer in shots, 24-18, but only held an 11-10 shots on goal advantage.
NOTABLES
- Katelyn Dimopoulos scored her seventh goal of the season, and the 10th of her career, when her free kick went into the back of the net uncontested late in the first half.
- Sarah Daane netted her third goal of the year, and the sixth of her career, after sending a free kick of her own into the top right corner of the net. Daane fired off four shots, including two on goal, for the night.
- Sydney Brogden scored her second goal of the season and the 12th of her career when she put Mercer up 3-1 late in the second half. Both of Brogden's scores this season have been game-winners.
- Maggie Cropp tied her season high of nine goals, while allowing two goals against the Bucs. The two goals are the most Cropp has allowed since Aug. 23 at Oklahoma State, as she has not given up more than a single goal in a game in over two months.
- Maddie Clark led Mercer with five shots, including four on goal. Dimopoulos and Valeria Bermeo each logged two shots for Mercer, while five additional players tallied an attempt.
- ETSU held an 8-6 advantage in corner kicks, but Mercer led 6-3 in the first half.
- With the victory, the Bears notched their ninth consecutive winning season.
QUOTABLES
"It was a great quarterfinal game with a very familiar team; we've known ETSU since the Atlantic Sun days. I was very proud of our team for coming out tonight. We got down early, and credit to ETSU for getting a goal early on. Maggie Cropp was the player of the match tonight as she made two PK saves and kept us in the game. We worked on set pieces all week and we put two set pieces away. We got a third goal from Sydney Brogden, who had a great finish, and we hung on. It was a great game, great quarterfinal match and fortunately we came out on the winning end. We move on to the semifinals, which was our goal, and we look forward to our match on Friday." – Head Coach Tony Economopoulos.
RECORDS UPDATE
Mercer moves to 9-7-3 on the year, while ETSU finished the season at 9-9-1.
UP NEXT
No. 4 Mercer advances to the semifinals of the Southern Conference Tournament and will play No. 1 Samford on Friday, Nov. 6 at 5:00 p.m. in Greenville, S.C.
For all the latest information on Mercer women's soccer, please visit MercerBears.com or, for up-to-the-minute updates, follow Mercer soccer on Twitter at @MercerWSoccer or www.twitter.com/MercerWSoccer.
