COLUMBUS - Trailing 1-0 at halftime, the No. 7 and top-seeded Columbus State University women's soccer team roared back to defeat the eighth-seeded University of Mount Olive 3-1 in the opening round of the NCAA Championship. The match took place at the Walden Soccer Complex.
With the win, Columbus State advances into Sunday's second round and will take on a familiar foe in No. 18 Flagler College. FC defeated CSU 5-3 last Sunday in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament Championship.
"This is what you play for the entire year," commented head coach Jay Entlich. "The NCAA Tournament is something special, and I'm glad the girls found a way to pull this one out.
"Mount Olive is a very talented and well-coached team and took it to us early. I would like to congratulate them on a fantastic season and best of luck in the future."
The Cougars (19-2-1) found themselves down early, with Mount Olive finding the opening goal in the sixth minute. Jaslyn Gott was the one to put the Trojans up following a beautiful corner kick from Ashley Kerekes.
CSU's first chance to find the equalizer came in the 11th minute when the Cougars were awarded a penalty kick. However, Talyor Lewis denied Lauren Barnes to keep UMO ahead.
Columbus State kept attacking up until halftime, but Lewis and the Trojans were up for the challenge. In the 23rd minute, Lewis recorded her second save after blocking a shot off the foot of Rachael Sweigard.
The second half started with a bang as the Cougars evened things just 34 seconds into the half. On the play, Maddie DeFranco set up Barens on the far-right side of the box before the freshman fired an unstoppable ball into the upper half of the net.
Less than two seconds later, CSU went up 2-1 on a Sage Smith goal. DeFranco once again started the attack to put the Cougars ahead.
Columbus State kept the pressure on Mount Olive and found a third goal in the 62nd minute. Graduate student Maddy Peterson ripped a shot from the left side of the box to give CSU the two-goal advantage. DeFranco picked up her third assist to become just the 11th player in CSU history to have three or more helpers in a match.
Mount Olive (15-2-2) strung together two shots over the final half, however, neither was on target.
Lizzie Hedrick entered the match at halftime to pick up the victory. Sara Halilhodzic started in net for CSU.
UP NEXT
Columbus State and Flagler will battle for a spot in the third round of the NCAA Championship on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Walden Soccer Complex.
MATCH NOTES
• DeFranco is the only Cougar in history to have three assists in an NCAA Championship match
• It was CSU's first NCAA postseason win since Nov. 16, 2018. On that day, the Cougars defeated Lincoln Memorial University 3-2 in the Southeast Region Championship (third round)
• Columbus State outshot UMO 17-2 over the final 80 minutes of the match
• After scoring her first five goals of the year on the road, Barnes has now scored in each of the last three matches at the Walden Soccer Complex
• Peterson has scored in four out of the last five matches. She has three goals in the postseason (PBC & NCAA)
• The Cougars have scored 3 or more goals in 16 of their 22 matches this season