Thursday, November 06, 2003

GREENSBORO, N.C. (November 6, 2003) - The East Tennessee State women's soccer team fell to Chattanooga Thursday afternoon at the UNCG Soccer Stadium, 3-1. The ETSU Bucs end the season with a record of 12-6-0 overall their best record in the seven year history of the program, while the Mocs improve to 10-5-3 and will face the SoCon regular season champions the Furman Paladins at 5:00 p.m. Friday night. "I'm extremely proud of this team," commented head coach Heather Henson. "They played the entire season with heart, desire, and passion. Also they have learned to persevere over obstacles." In the first stanza of action, the Mocs took an early lead off of Diana Jallo's goal. Brooke Crandall maneuvered around the ETSU and set up Jallo for the first goal of the match at 3:29. ETSU got on the board when Erin Ashton (New Bern, N.C.) tied up the match, 1-1 by netting a goal off of a penalty kick at 39:13. With less than one minute remaining in the first half, Elfa Erlingsdottir found the back of the net to give the Mocs a 2-1 lead. Jallo assisted on the Mocs' game-winning goal. The second half of play held both teams battled for the ball, with scoring opportunities for both sides. However, the Mocs were able to convert on those opportunities to score an insurance goal at 89:12 for the final tally of 3-1. The Mocs made 20 shots in the game and held the Bucs to only six. In her last game as a Buccaneer, senior Heather Sanden (Manassas, Va.) made eight saves in the match for the Bucs, while Stacey Matthiessen made two saves for the Mocs. "The program took huge steps this year and it's sad that we have to wait until next year to take more," said Henson. "It has been a great experience for our young members of the team, but is a hard loss for our seniors."