Bears Earn the Shutout in Birmingham

Friday, October 29

Birmingham, Ala.

6:30 PM

Mercer University

7-5-5, 3-2-4

ETSU (Southern Conference Quarterfinal)

7-6-3, 4-4-1

Mercer

ETSU

SoCon Quarterfinal

10/30/2021 12:32:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

Bears will continue in the SoCon Tournament this Sunday.

By: Jake List

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – After 90 minutes, the Bear's earned their first victory in the SoCon '21 postseason as they defeated #4 ETSU 2-0 in the quarterfinals at Shauna Yelton Field. This marks the third year in a row the Bears have made the semis.

BEARS MATCH INFO
Date & Time: Friday, October 29^th, 2021 | 6:30 P.M. CT
Teams: ETSU vs. Mercer Bears
Location: Birmingham, Ala. | Shauna Yelton Field
Twitter Updates: @MercerWSoccer

Head coach Tony Economopoulos when asked to describe tonight's match in one word he returned with "gritty". The Bears entered this game with good heads on their shoulder and mental toughness that can't even be described in words. After a lot of love and support was shown by the Bears' 12^th man, Kendall Cook was able to score an impressive goal to breathe an even more enthusiastic life into the MU squad. The team went into the half with one confident foot forward. Tony told the squad at the half, "I'm proud of that performance I just saw, but I know we can do even more". "One is not enough. We are not complacent, so I want you to go out there and play like it's still 0-0 and keep that hunger alive." "We were able to come back out in the second half and score another goal just three minutes into it." "With tough conditions being brought against us and this game behind us, we have a big matchup ahead of us." "I told you that we had no intentions of being a one and done team and we proved that tonight. We earned the right to play another match to further prove our talents and we look forward to showcasing them against #1 Samford."

ETSU was able to attack slightly in the first half, but Ebert and the Bears were able to shut down any and of their efforts. The Bucs' offense was led by Lindsey Cook and Ellie Cornell. Both were able to document two shots apiece on the day. As they played back and forth with the Bears in the second half, ETSU pushed forward, and unfortunately struggled in front of the goal. When they could go forward, goalkeeper Jordyn Ebert was there to save the day on three big occasions as she earned the clean sheet on the match.

The Bears entered the second half with a 1-0 lead, but that wouldn't be the final score. As some of their targets in the first were found to be successful the team knew that one goal would not be enough to secure a comfortable feel on the pitch. The Bears had a chip on their shoulder as they were the lower seed entering the match and with no other upsets occurring in the tournament, MU knew they wanted to be the difference and set their own standard. Mercer came out and played their game and what felt right to them. The Bears dominated the ball in the second half and although the field's conditions continued to worsen, Payton Schurr was able to score the 2^nd and final goal on the night in the 48^th minute. That second goal was all Mercer needed to continue the mentality they knew that they could hold entering this match. MU played just as hard and scrappy as they always do, and the referees did not take kindly to that behavior today. With calls being made left and right it forced the Bears to be smart with the ball and even smarter off of it. Mercer will look to use this knowledge and momentum and put it towards their Semifinal SoCon postseason matchup on Sunday.

Notables:

Jordyn Ebert recorded 5 saves.
Jordyn Ebert with the saves she made night earned her the Grit Chain.
Kendall Cook and Payton Schurr scored in the match.
Mercer moves to 7-5-5 overall and continues at 3-2-4 in the SoCon.

Up Next:
The Bears will play Sunday the 31^st at 1:00 P.M. against Samford in Birmingham.

FOLLOW THE BEARS
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