KENNESAW, Ga.—Cornelia Sochor scored the game-winning goal less than four minutes into overtime as Stetson won its Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament quarterfinal match with Kennesaw State, 3-2, on Friday.
This is Stetson's first post-season victory since 2010. The Hatters (10-7-1) now advance to next weekend's A-Sun semifinals, where they will face top-seeded FGCU on Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. in Fort Myers, Fla. The championship game is set for Sunday, Nov. 8.
Stetson won despite playing without senior defender Autumn Matthews, and with fellow senior Danielle Hurme limited to just 10 minutes as she recovers from an injury.
“We talked before the season about making history and having a breakthrough year and this is part of that,” said head coach Manoj Khettry. “Our goal has been to give our seniors an opportunity to win a championship, and we're doing that. We talked before the match about winning this game for the seniors, especially Danielle and Autumn, in order to give them an opportunity to play next week.”
Sochor rescued the Hatters after Stetson squandered an early 2-0 lead. Kennesaw State took control of the match late in the first half and maintained control for much of the second half as the game moved into overtime.
But Sochor made sure the Hatters came out on top, scoring when she took a pass from Adrianna Suarez 35 yards from the goal, dribbled right and sent a laser into the lower left corner of the goal for the winning shot. It was her first goal of the season.
“That was the only goal from the run of play today,” said Khettry. “One of things we did going into overtime was to switch formations. We made a decision that they weren't going to get through the midfield. Sure enough, we strung together three to four passes, and Connie got the ball and hit a laser. It was a great goal.”
Collins helped Stetson take control of the match in the early going, scoring the first of her two goals in the fifth minute. Annette Morton served a perfect cross from just outside the right side of the box and Collins lined a header into the net for a 1-0 lead.
Collins struck again just over three minutes later, with another header. This time Mara Keomanivane's free kick from the left side put Collins in position for a header inside of three yards and the goal made it a 2-0 Stetson lead. The assist was Keomanivane's seventh of the season.
Kennesaw State seized some momentum going into halftime when the Owls scored with about five minutes left in the half. Carly Pressgrove scored on a scramble in front of the box on a corner kick to make it a 2-1 affair.
“If we go into the locker room up 2-0 we're riding high,” said Khettry. “Now they have belief and they're only chasing a one-goal deficit.”
The Owls knotted the match in the 59th minute, scoring again off a corner kick. Abby Roth found the back of the net to tie the game at two.
“Even though they scored a second goal we did a good job in the second half of bending and not breaking,” said Khettry. “I thought they dominated us for long periods of time in the second half. That's why we had to make changes in the overtime.
KSU out-shot Stetson, 17-12, but both teams had seven shots on-goal. Stetson keeper Janina Scharnbacher made five saves.
News & Notes
Sarah Collins now has 12 goals on the season, tying the Stetson single-season record set by Kristy Porcelli back in 1999 … Collins also has 28 points for the year, two shy of the single-season mark of 30 set by Tessa Gavilsky in 2009 … the three goals today are a post-season high for Stetson … with seven assists, Mara Keomanivane is tied for fifth on the single-season list, and her 13 career assists are tied for fifth … the Hatters now have 10 wins, their most since 2009 and just the fifth time in the program's 23-year history they've reached double figures in victories.
