Bears Win First Match of 2020 With 1-0 Defeat of Georgia Southern

Thursday, September 24

Statesboro, GA

7:00 PM

Mercer University

1-1-1, 0-0-0

Georgia Southern

0-3-0, 0-1-0

Team	1	2	Final F
Mercer	1	0	1
Ga. Southern	0	0	0

Box Score (PDF)

Photo by: Milledge Austin

Bears Win First Match of 2020 With 1-0 Defeat of Georgia Southern

9/24/2020 9:24:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

Ally Fordham netted the lone goal of the contest.

By: Kraig Doremus

STATESBORO, Ga. – For the second time in as many contests, the Bears scored less than 10 minutes into the match. Ally Fordham's goal only 9:04 had elapsed proved to be all that Mercer needed to defeat Georgia Southern, 1-0.

Mercer picked up its first win of the 2020 season, improving to 1-1-1, while the Eagles of Georgia Southern dropped to 0-3-0.

The Bears attempted the first two shots of the game, with Fordham's goal coming less than a minute after Kylie Buchanan's attempt.

Aliah Kitchens nearly aligned herself with the right post and crossed the ball to Fordham who headed the ball past Sara Story for the goal. For more than 85 minutes, the Bears' back line held steady as Jordyn Ebert made a season-high six saves to record her first clean sheet of the season and become the Southern Conference's active leader in shutouts.

In the 30^th minute, Alina McCue had an opportunity to make a 2-0 match in favor of Mercer, but her shot from 10 yards away was blocked.

Ebert was challenged in the 41^st and 43^rd minutes of the opening half but remained collected in the net, preventing Georgia Southern from netting the equalizer.

After the intermission, Kitchens almost scored her second goal of the season in the 46^th minute, but a diving save by Story kept the score at 1-0. Abigail Zoeller had two tries to give Mercer a multi-goal lead but came up empty both times. In the 57^th minute her shot glanced off the post, while her attempt in the 64^th minute forced Story to jump and punch the ball over the crossbar.

Ebert made three second half saves, including two in the late stages of the contest, one of which was a diving stop to preserve the clean sheet. She snagged the Eagles' last shot of the evening as Simone Timme sent the ball directly into her waiting arms.

Ebert made six saves while Story made two. Mercer held a 5-3 advantage in corner kicks.

COACH TONY ECONOMOPOULOS QUOTABLES

ON PICKING UP THE FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON
"The team is progressing and each athlete is getting more comfortable in her role. The hard work is starting to pay off, but we have to keep getting better. Our goal now is to win the next one."

ON THE TRAINING FOCUS DURING THE OFF WEEK
"We're striving to continue improving in certain areas of the field. We'll keep working on finishing, and we also need to be more clinical in front of the goal."

NOTABLES

The victory was Mercer's eighth over Georgia Southern. The Bears now have an 8-11-1 record against the Eagles.
Tonight marked the first time this season that the Bears finished a match after 90 minutes. Their contests against Georgia State (Sept. 11) and The Citadel (Sept. 17) went into extra time.
Freshman Ellie Christensen and sophomore Aliah Kitchens made their first career starts.
Fordham, a senior, scored her first goal of the 2020 season.
Kitchens notched her first career assist.
Ebert made a season-high six stops en route to the first shutout of her senior season.
The Suwanee, Ga. native is now three clean sheets away from sole possession of second all-time in program history. The shutout makes her the SoCon's active leader in clean sheets.
The senior goalkeeper has made 15 saves in three matches, bringing her career total to 272 stops. She needs 38 saves to be third all-time in Mercer women's soccer history.

UP NEXT
The Bears will not be in action again until October 8 when they conclude their three-match road trip at South Alabama. Kickoff time has not been announced.

FOLLOW THE BEARS
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