Box Score Danville, VA - In a battle for the top of the USA South Athletic Conference standings, it was the Piedmont College women's soccer team who came out on top in a hard-fought 2-1 victory at Averett University. The Lady Lions held a 2-0 lead through almost 88 minutes before the Cougars scored late to give themselves a chance, but it would be for not as Averett suffered their first home loss in 2013 and just their second defeat overall in their last 22 conference contests.
Piedmont scored first in the game after absorbing a great deal of pressure from the Averett attack in the first 20 minutes. For the Lady Lions, it was
Katie Zoller who broke through to score first poking away a
Shayna Rogers cross that came across the face of goal dangerously for AU.
Zoller's strike in the 32nd minute was her first of the season as the freshman helped Piedmont to a 1-0 advantage with less than 15 minutes to go before the halftime break. At the intermission, the two sides showed they played an even game with Averett outshooting PC just 7-5 and each side getting a pair of corners to work with.
When the second half began, Piedmont would quickly make the mountain too high to climb for the hosting Cougars as an Averett defender's back pass would be picked up by the home team keeper giving PC an indirect free kick in the box. After a
Laura Goodwin touch to get the ball moving, junior defender
Kelsey Schaffernoth blasted a shot over the head of outstretched AU keeper Amanda Urban who had little time to react and saw her team go down now 2-nil.
With the advantage on the scoreboard now heavily in favor of the visitors, PC would need only to defend for close to 45 minutes against one of the most feared squads in the USA South - a task that the Piedmont back four and goalkeepers responded to well allowing only the single score to Averett with just over two minutes to play.
After the Cougars' Camilla Sjoren scored to cut the deficit to one in the 88th minute, Piedmont waited out the final few minutes getting the defensive clearances needed to hold on to the road victory in a tough environment. The Lady Lions are the first conference team to come in to Danville and leave with a win since Ferrum did so in a 2-1 result in October of 2010.
The victory moves Piedmont to 14-2-1 overall and now 9-1-1 in conference action. However, the win is perhaps more important to the USA South standings for PC as they now clinch a top four seed with the win and likely will finish second in the final conference table with 28 points and a game to play.
The Lady Lions also still have a chance to earn a share of the league's regular season title should they win Wednesday night in their next match at Covenant College. That contest will wrap up the team's regular season as well with the USA South quarterfinals set to take place the following Saturday.
