Sunday, October 05, 2008

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (October 5, 2008) - Needing a win in the biggest way the ETSU women's soccer team held on to defeat the Belmont Bruins 1-0 Sunday, in Summers-Taylor Stadium. With the win the Bucs improve to 4-6 overall and 2-2 in the Atlantic Sun Conference play, while Belmont drops to 8-4 overall and is now 3-1 in league action.

"We defiantly were in a live or die situation this afternoon," said head coach Heather Henson. "The girls stepped-up and took this game from a business perspective and knew it was time to get the job done."   

ETSU opened the scoring as junior forward Jordan Monty (Mesquite, Texas), dribbled down the left side of Belmont's defensive zone, then crossed over one Bruin defender firing the game-winning goal past Belmont keeper Sari Lin in the 24th minute.

The Bruins best scoring opportunity in the opening period came as midfielder Jamie Loftis fired an bicycle kick shot from eight-yards out that was saved by ETSU freshman goalkeeper Megan Masch (Virginia Beach, Va.) which gave the Bucs a one-goal advantage heading into the intermission.

In the second half Belmont wouldn't make things any easier for the Bucs, amassing 10 shots. However Masch and the Bucs back four defenders would stay disciplined and deny every Bruins chance earning ETSU a much need three points in the conference standings.

"Defensively we did a much better job of staying patient," said Henson. "Belmont does a great job playing their system of soccer. They're a team that isn't going to change styles a lot and we were able to throw them off a little today. Since they have such a strong counterattack, Belmont was expecting us to step in to gaps, however our team stayed within our gameplan and didn't get caught playing out of position."

With the win ETSU now continues to be in the hunt for one of six eligible spots in the conference tournament.

"From here on out we have to continue to be patient," said Henson. "We have to continue to not force the situation as we play teams. That's going to help us be more controlled and stable as we move forward."

The Bucs return to action this Tuesday as they travel to take on conference foe USC Upstate, at 7:00 p.m.

For more information on ETSU women's soccer visit www.ETSUBUCS.com or www.AtlanticSun.org.