Margot Provencher.
Box Score
ATHENS, W. Va. – Led by the first two goals of freshman midfielder
Sara van den Akker's career, the Concord University women's soccer team defeated West Liberty University, 3-1, Wednesday afternoon at Anderson Field.
"It was a good three points for us today," head coach Stefanie Workman said. "Sara was in the right spot on our first goal of the day and we got a little luck from the soccer gods on the other two. We worked all week on getting second chances off of rebounds and it really paid off today."
Concord trailed 1-0 at halftime, but scored three times in the second half to secure the home victory.
The victory improves Concord's record to 5-7-1 overall and 3-6-1 in Mountain East Conference competition. The Hilltoppers drop to 4-8-1 overall and 3-6-1 in league play. With four conference contests remaining on Concord's schedule, the Mountain Lions are still alive for a berth into the MEC Tournament.
"We are basically in a situation where we have to win," Workman said. "We don't really have any other option at this point in the season. I challenged them at halftime to go out and score three goals in the second half and they did just that."
After a scoreless 41 minutes of back-and-forth action, West Liberty's Kaylynn Petrison managed break the tie when she beat freshman goalie
Kristin Twomey for a score a 41:48 in the opening period, giving the Hilltoppers a 1-0 lead heading into halftime.
However, the Mountain Lions regrouped and quickly responded in the second half with a pair of goals by van den Akker in the 59th minute of competition.
van den Akker's first strike came off of a corner kick from junior back
Abby Barber while her second score occurred just 39 seconds later when she attempted to place a ball from just inside the centerfield line into the box, the ball proceeded to bounce over WLU goalie Rachel Coles' head and into the back of the net. Barber's assist was her team-leading third of the season.
The Mountain Lions added an insurance goal to secure the two-goal victory off of another corner in the 82nd minute that was finished off by junior forward
Nikki Jarrell with assists from junior midfielder
Sami Spertzel and freshman forward
Margot Provencher. The score was the first of Jarrell's career.
In addition to her assist, Barber finished the game with a team-high four shots. Freshman forward
Emily Cole added three attempts while Jarrell, van den Akker and sophomore forward
Kari Simon tallied two shots apiece on the afternoon.
Twomey played the entire first half, making three saves and allowing one goal before giving way to sophomore
Kaitlyn Wasylko in the second period. Wasylko earned her first win of the season by stopping one shot in and shutting West Liberty out in the second half.
For the game, Concord held advantages over West Liberty in both shots (14-8) and shots on goal (8-5). Both teams were awarded three corner kicks.
Concord is now 19-7-3 in home matches under Workman.
Prior to the match, Concord wore pink warm-up shirts for breast cancer awareness.
The Mountain Lions continue their four-game homestand 11:00 a.m. Saturday against Wheeling Jesuit.
