No. 5 VMI 1, No. 4 Coastal Carolina 1 (2OT, 5-3 PK)
CHARLESTON, S.C. - After 110 minutes of action that ended in a 1-1 tie, the No. 5 seed VMI won a penalty kick shootout over the No. 4 seed Coastal Carolina, 5-3, in the first game of the 2009 Big South Women's Soccer Championship presented by Musco Sports Lighting Thursday at Blackbaud Stadium in Charleston, S.C.  The Keydets advance to the semifinals and will play the winner of No. 1 Liberty-No. 8 Winthrop Friday afternoon at 4:30pm.  It is VMI's second-straight appearance in the semifinals after making their first appearance ever in 2008.

The Tournament's opening goal took just 6:25 to appear as Chrissy Beach took the ball at the left corner of the 18-yard box and fired a shot into the far corner of the net, giving VMI the early advantage.  Both teams had multiple chances for additional tallies, but neither team was able to put the ball in the back of the net.

Just two minutes into the second half, a driving pass into the 18-box by Coastal Carolina skipped off the head of a VMI defender, catching Keydet keeper Angela Redmond off guard as VMI gave up an own goal that tied the game at 1-1.

CCU dominated the stats in the second half and both overtime periods, holding a 24-5 advantage in shots and a 4-1 edge in corner kicks, but they were not able to put the ball in the back of the net, thanks to 10 saves by Redmond.

Beach led the Keydets with five shots, while Anna Tupy had a game-high eight shots, putting three on goal. 

VMI had just two shots on goal out of 12 shots, while CCU had 11 shots on target.  Redmond (5-5-2) played all 110 minutes for VMI with 10 saves, not counting a blocked penalty kick to help VMI advance to the semifinals.  Amy Haggard (6-6-2) had one save in 110 minutes in goal for the Chanticleers.

VMI improves to 7-10-2 (5-4-0 Big South) on the year, while Coastal Carolina ends its season at 7-11-3 (5-3-1 Big South).  The Keydets will be making their second appearance in the Big South Tournament semifinals.

QUOTES

Coastal Carolina Head Coach Rohan Naraine
"In the first half, we didn't play well.  I thought we played very well in the second half.  We got the goal back.  We created some chances, but you have to put away those chances.  You have to put them away or it's going to come to penalty kicks.  Both teams played their hearts out and I have to give credit to VMI."

VMI Head Coach Bryan Williams
"Certainly my hat goes off to Coastal Carolina and their coach, [Rohan Naraine].  They've always been a super team inside the Conference. Playing them earlier in the year, we kind of got it handed to us on a hot and muggy day.  We felt like we didn't represent ourselves well when we played them earlier in the season when we played them.  To get on the board right away against what we knew would be a tough team but a team we knew we could play with was exactly what we wanted to do."

"It's a tremendous feeling. It is the first time we have beaten Coastal in our school's brief history. To have to go to penalty kicks to do it was a little much for me, but a terrific job by our group."