LEXINGTON, Va. (Oct. 27, 2024) – The ETSU women's soccer team ended the regular season with a 3-1 win over VMI on Sunday afternoon at Patchin Field. With the win, the Bucs earned the No. 6 seed and will face No. 3 seed Furman in Friday's Southern Conference quarterfinal at Samford's Shauna Yelton Field.
 
The Bucs got first-half goals from Natalie Capannelli and Jada Cooper, while Ruby Teixeira put the exclamation point on the match when she netted a penalty kick in the 60th minute, making it a 3-0 lead. VMI tacked its goal in the 68th and the Bucs walked away with the two-goal victory.
 
ETSU – who ended the regular season unbeaten in its last three matches – moved to 4-7-4 overall and finished SoCon play at 3-3-3. VMI dropped to 6-10-2 and 1-7-1. With the Buccaneer win, combined with Samford's 2-1 victory over UNCG, ETSU locked in the No. 6 seed in the SoCon Tournament.
 
For the match, ETSU took 10 shots to VMI's six, while the Bucs held the advantage in corner kicks, 9-0. Ashton Blair was tested twice as she moved her career total to 196 saves.
 
Two of the Bucs' scores came on penalty kicks with Capannelli putting ETSU ahead in the 11th minute for her second score of the campaign, along with the goal by Teixeira – her third of the season – to finish the Buccaneer scoring in the 60th. Cooper's goal was sandwiched in between for her second of the year in the 28th, making it a 2-0 score.
 
VMI's Sedona Dancu accounted for the Keydets' only goal of the contest, which came in the 68th minute off an assist by Mia Ortega.
 
ETSU now turns its attention to postseason play as the Bucs gear up for No. 3 Furman on Friday night. The other teams in the pod include No. 7 UNCG, No. 10 The Citadel and No. 2 Samford. UNCG and The Citadel square off Tuesday night in Greensboro to determine who advances to Birmingham to play Samford.
 
Friday's quarterfinal game with Furman will be played at 8 p.m. ET.
 
For more information on ETSU women's soccer, go to ETSUBucs.com and click on the women's soccer tab.