HARRISONBURG, Va. – Laura Ortega scored twice, including the double overtime game-winner, to lift the College of Charleston women's soccer team to the CAA semifinal round for the first time in program history with a 3-2 victory over the No. 5 seed Drexel.
Charleston started on the front foot with Ortega winning a free-kick deep down the left wing in the opening minutes. The senior whipped the cross in with
Sara Deutsch having the effort from 5-yards out, but somehow Libby Baeza in the Drexel goal kept the ball from crossing the line.
Minutes later Charleston opened the scoring.
Raymara Barreto took a free-kick from the half-way line, spotting Ortega running in behind the defense. Ortega took the ball down with her first touch 12-yards out and finished into the bottom right corner.
Minutes later it was very nearly two.
Alyssa Beck created space at the top of the box with a turn and effort that hit the left-hand post and bounced clear.
On her return to the lineup from an injury,
Maddy Brill-Edwards tested Baeza in the 17
th minute with a header from 10-yards that the Dragons keeper punched over the crossbar.
But Brill-Edwards was not to be denied a goal on her return. In the 53
rd minute Ortega crossed from the left wing with Beck nodding into Brill-Edwards 12-yards from goal. The senior turned her marker and finished into the bottom corner to push the Charleston lead to 2-0 with her second goal of the year.
As the game entered the final twenty minutes Drexel pulled a goal back. A cross from the left wing was eventually finished from close range by Morgan Rees.
With only three minutes left on the clock the Dragons pulled level. Charleston cleared the ball from a cross with the ball falling perfectly for Kiera Hennessy 25-yards from goal. The Drexel midfielder curling a long-range effort beyond
Meredith Holton in the Charleston goal.
Overtime couldn't separate the sides, the best opportunity falling to
Megan Classer who used her speed to burst onto a bouncing ball, but her effort flew narrowly wide of the left post.
In double-overtime Ortega won it for Charleston from a goal-kick. Holton knocked the ball forward with Classer flicking the ball on for Ortega to chase. The senior found space between two Drexel defenders, rounded the advancing goalkeeper and slotted into the empty net from 20-yards to give Charleston the 3-2 win.
The College now look to their first CAA semifinal match in program history on Sunday, a 1 p.m. match against the No. 1 seed James Madison.
Quotable – Head Coach Christian Michner
"We played very well today against a tough Drexel side. My hats off to the Dragons as they really pushed us to the limit in a great CAA quarterfinal match. I am happy for my group as we played extremely well for large stretches of the game but needed to dig deep in overtime to win it. We have some amazing leaders on this team and they stepped up big time today. The semifinal on Sunday against JMU will be another tough one. I expect it will be two very good teams that have a similar style of play that will test each other, and each has the ability to score a lot of goals. We will have to rest our legs and make sure we're ready to battle on Sunday. I'm excited for this team and for the chance to play another one."
Notables
• Charleston advances to its first CAA semifinal in program history
• Charleston wins its first CAA Championship game in program history
•
Laura Ortega scored her team-leading ninth and tenth goals of the season
• Ortega and
Alyssa Beck tabbed their joint team-leading fifth assists of the year
• Charleston picks up its second win over Drexel in program history
•
Maddy Brill-Edwards led the attack with four efforts, three on goal
•
Genevieve Henderson didn't make a save in 45 minutes played while
Meredith Holton made two in 60 minutes of action
• Five student-athletes played the full 104 minutes (
Sara Deutsch,
Leah Deutsch,
Mackenzie Crittenberger,
Rachel Kim,
Meredith Tunney)
• Tunney continues to be the only Charleston student-athlete to play every minute of every game this season (1,795 minutes)
