HIGH POINT, N.C. – No. 3 VMI used two first-half goals to defeat No. 6 Winthrop, 2-1, in the first game of the 2008 Big South Women’s Soccer Championship, Thursday at Vert Track & Soccer Stadium on the campus of High Point University.  The Keydets advance in the Big South Tournament for the first time and will play the winner of No. 2 Radford-No. 7 UNC Asheville in the Semifinals, Friday afternoon at 4:30pm. 

The lower-seeded Eagles got on the board early, scoring in the fifth minute of play.  Erin Foote took the corner kick for Winthrop, which found the head of Kathleen Pollard for the goal.  It was Foote’s second goal of the season.

VMI came back minutes later with a shot by Megan Strand that earned a corner kick for the Keydets.  On the ensuing play, Amanda Berrios’ header was on target, but a Winthrop defender denied the shot attempt.  VMI gathered the loose ball and was fouled on the play.  Gabrielle McCarron headed home Strand’s free kick to knot the game at 1-1.  It was McCarron’s first goal of the season.

Later in the first half, VMI’s Christina Gontarski received a through ball from Olivia Moore and put it past Eagles goali Dimitra Poulos to provide the game-winning goal in the 35th minute of play.  It was Gontarski’s second goal of the season.

The Keydets held a slight 16-15 edge in shot attempts for the game with 12 of their attempts going on frame.  Winthrop posted an 11-8 advantage in corner kicks.  Heidi Beemer collected four saves in net for VMI, while Poulos stopped nine shots for Winthrop.

VMI improves to 10-9-1 on the year, while Winthrop ends its season at 8-10-2.  This was VMI’s first ever win in the Big South Conference Tournament.

QUOTES

VMI Head Coach Bryan Williams
“There’s a tremendous amount of pride that both myself and this team are feeling after winning our first-ever Conference Tournament game.  The game today shows the competitiveness of the Conference, with a team that we beat 3-0 earlier this year getting up early on us and really pushing us throughout the match.  I was proud of how my team held in and answered their early goal with a couple of tremendous efforts.  In the second half, we had an answer for everything that they threw at us, and it was a big sigh of relief when the clock hit zero and we knew that we had locked it in to move on to Friday.”

Winthrop Head Coach Melissa Heinz
“I know we gave it a good effort.  Congratulations to VMI on the victory.  I am proud of the effort of our players.  I’m disappointed to get the loss and for our seniors.  It doesn’t show what they have done for us.”