There were close to 800 eyes at Frock Field on Saturday night — and about a million
butterflies.Most of them
watched with amazement as the Catawba women’s soccer team withstood an incessant
attack from the nation’s premier Division II squad. When it ended after 120 minutes
of knock-’em-down and get-back-up action, the Lady Indians had themselves a spunky
1-1 tie with visiting Presbyterian.
“We found out how good we are
and how much heart we have,” striker Catey Conner said after Catawba earned the no. 2
seed in this week’s South Atlantic Conference tournament. “What hurts is knowing
we could have beaten them.”
Catawba (10-4-2, 6-0-2 SAC) was
outshot 21-7, including 5-0 during two sudden death overtime periods. That it came against
top-ranked Presbyterian (14-0-1, 7-0-1 SAC) — a team that had posted 13 shutouts and
outscored its opposition 51-1 — seemed almost incidental.
“Some of our girls are
disappointed because they know we had a chance to win it,” said head coach Kevin
Dempsey. “But we’ll take a tie. Sometimes the team with the most shots
doesn’t win. That’s soccer sometimes.”
The team with the fewest shots
squandered a chance to make front-page news with just over five minutes remaining in
regulation. The match’s most-pivotal play began when Catawba forward Jen Kennedy
unleashed a low, hard shot from close range that sent PC keeper Lara Johnson sprawling to
her right. When a rebounded squirted to the unguarded Conner — Catawba’s
all-time scoring leader with 43 goals — a Stop-the-Press victory was literally inches
away.
“The goal was wide open,
right in front of me,” said Conner. “Iwas just a little bit unlucky. It should
have been a finish.”
Instead, it was a face-saving stop
at the goal line by Presbyterian defender Ann Marie Flaherty, who appeared out of nowhere
and cleared the ball as Johnson lay face-down.
“Ninety-nine percent of the
time Catey finishes that,” said Dempsey. “But that’s all right.”
Nothing seemed right in the first
half, when PC held Catawba to two shots and took a 1-0 lead in the game’s 26th
minute. The scoring play unfolded when midfielder Jamie Harris ripped a high shot that
Catawba keeper Kim Clayton deflected to her feet and trapped against the turf. PC’s
Michelle Spangler was on the ground when she pried the ball loose and pushed a shot into
the lower left corner.
“I thought I had it under
control with one hand,” said Clayton, a freshman from Haw River. “The official
probably couldn’t tell because it was so rowdy in there.”
Things got rowdier when the Lady
Indians tied the score with 10:05 remaining in the second half. Senior Heather Buchanan,
the sweeper who had just been switched to midfield to help generate offense, initiated the
play when she dribbled down left wing. When teammate Megan Mainer found a seam and broke
toward the net, Buchanan made an eye-level feed that deflected off Mainer’s head,
abruptly changed direction and buzzed past the startled Johnson.
“It happened so fast,”
said Buchanan. “But what an awesome play.”
Clayton was equally impressive in
two 15-minute OT periods. First she cleanly fielded a 25-yard one-hopper from Ashley
Davies. Then with just over two minutes to play she made spectacular back-to-back stops on
a header by Davies and short drive by Karen Markham, Presbyterian’s most-prolific
scorer.
“We made a decision last year
in the recruiting process that we were not going to lose her,” Dempsey said after
Clayton finished with 15 saves. “She is a special player and tonight, you saw
why.”
Catawba, ranked 20th in last
week’s national poll, will kick off the SAC tournament Wednesday when it hosts
sixth-seeded Carson-Newman. Gametime will be announced on Monday. A victory will qualify
the Indians for next weekend’s semifinals at Mars Hill.
“I told the girls this would
have been good to win,” said Dempsey. “The next one’s gonna be even
better.”
n
NOTES: Catawba enters postseason
play unbeaten in its last five games (4-0-1). It defeated Carson-Newman, 2-1 in overtime,
on Oct. 2. ... PC, which won its fourth SAC regular-season title since 1994, had posted
eight straight shutouts. |
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