No. 1 Coastal Carolina posted its fifth straight shutout in Big South Tournament play defeating No. 5 High Point 1-0 in a hard fought sixth game of the 2008 Big South Women's Soccer Championship Friday night at Vert Track & Soccer Stadium on the campus of High Point University. Coastal Carolina advances to Sunday's championship game against No. 2 seed Radford, and will make its second consecutive appearance in the title match. Friday's game was a rematch of last year's Championship contest.
The Chanticleers got the game's only goal at the 14:57 mark in the first half. Emily McColl switched the point of attack for Coastal on a counter-attack and found Blair Monroe outside the box who then fired a shot over the head of HPU goalie Marisa Abbott. It was Monroe's eighth goal and McColl's fourth assist of the season.
High Point had a couple of opportunities to get the equalizer, but was unable to do so. In the 52nd minute, Katie Taber found herself open in the CCU box and drilled a shot off the crossbar in the Panthers best scoring chance.
Ashleigh Gunning led the Chanticleers with six shot attempts on the night while Sara Rager and Taber both tallied two shots in leading the Panther offense.
Coastal Carolina earned a 17-7 advantage in shot attempts for the game, including a 10-4 margin during the second half. CCU also held a 7-2 lead in corner kicks. Abbott finished the game with five saves for HPU while Karen Pavlick stopped one shot en route to earning her second shutout of the weekend.
The Chanticleer, who are making just their second title match appearance on Sunday, become the first team to advance to the Championship game in back-to-back years since UNC Asheville in 2005 and 2006.
Coastal Carolina improves to 13-6-1 on the year, while High Point ends its season at 8-5-8.
Coastal Carolina and Radford will meet in the Championship game for the first time. First kick Sunday is scheduled for 2:00pm.
QUOTES
Coastal Carolina Head Coach Rohan Naraine
"It was an unbelievable game. It's a game of chances. We got ours. They were unlucky. They hit the crossbar. It was a great performance by the team. In this tournament, you need some luck and we got it."
High Point Head Coach Michelle Rayner
"First of all I would like to congratulate Coastal Carolina on a very solid performance tonight. They are a very good team. I am disappointed for our seniors that we didn't get to play in another tournament championship match, but I am very proud of this young team and how we played throughout the year. We had a great season and have a lot of things for this program to build on for next year. I was proud of our effort tonight and during the season."
