The sixth-year Catawba women’s soccer coach found a tried-and-true way to inspire his team halfway through Wednesday’s South Atlantic Conference tournament opener at Frock Field.

“I reminded them what was at stake here,” said Dempsey. “And I tried to light a fire. I told them it’s a one-game season and if we lose, we’re done. If we wanted to continue playing, we had to get it going.”

The second-seeded Lady Indians, ranked 12th in this week’s Division II poll, responded with an inspired second-half effort and both of their goals in a 2-0 victory over Carson-Newman. Catawba (11-4-2) advanced to Friday’s 4. p.m. semifinal at Mars Hill, where it will put a five-game unbeaten streak on the line against Tusculum.

“We’ll have to play a lot better than this,” insisted forward Sara Mushok. “More like we played against PC.”

She’s talking about Catawba’s 1-1 tie with then-no. 1 Presbyterian on Saturday, a thrilling overtime match the Indians used to secure second place in the conference standings.

“That might have been part of the problem today,” said Dempsey. “There may have been a little bit of an emotional letdown from the last game. But no excuses. It was just not a good performance by us.”

It started looking better just three minutes into the second half. That’s when forward Jen Kennedy took a clothesline pass from midfielder Becky Paul and bounced a header just wide right of the C-N cage.

Some 15 minutes later Kennedy didn’t miss. This time the freshman from Plymouth, Minn. took a sharp pass from teammate Catey Conner, swept past a defender and blasted a perfectly-placed 15-yard shot just under the crossbar.

“It came at a good time because we really needed to pick it up,” Kennedy said after netting her seventh goal of the season. “Catey played it through really nice.”

Catawba, which outshot the Lady Eagles (4-12-2) by a 12-1 margin in the second half, got its second goal on a tic-tac-toe play with just 3:57 remaining. It began when Conner dribbled down the right side and crossed a pass to sophomore Jennie Carson, who rifled a shot off the right post. The rebound caromed right to Mushok, who was perched at the doorstep and slid the ball past C-N keeper Christine Furman.

“Right place at the right time,” said Dempsey. “Sara has a tendency to be kind of a poacher. She hangs out and loiters a little bit in front of the goal and she was there again.”

Catawba’s defense, anchored by Heather Buchanan, Olivia Fick and Heather Dearing, was there throughout. C-N’s only shot came with 1:48 to play and was turned aside by keeper Kim Clayton.

“It was solid, good fundamental defense,” said Dempsey. “The only time we got in trouble was when we made the mistake of diving in. That’s when we gave them opportunities.”

The shutout was Catawba’s 10th of the season, one short of the team record set in 1993. “Now if we can get shutouts through the tournament, we’re golden,” said Dempsey.

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