October 28, 2012
The Spirits and Covenant both ended the conference regular season at 9-1, and each defeated the other 1-0. The second tie-breaker in the conference is goals against in conference play, which Salem only gave up 3 to Covenant giving up 4. Along with winning the regular season title, the Spirits will also be the number 1 seed in next weekend's tournament. The Spirits also celebrated the last home game for seniors Kellie Younger (Manhattan Beach, CA) and Sabrina Thiel (Hillsboro, OH).
"I am very excited about bringing home the regular season championship, but our work is not close to being done," said Head Coach Jay Callahan. "We want to win the Great South Tournament and head to the NCAA Tournament, but we know we really have our work cut out for us next week in Georgia."
Salem is on a 9 game win-streak and they have outscored their opponents 33-3 over those games. They also have 8 straight shutouts, and Paige Ketchum (Jacksonville, NC) earned her 7th today.
Sawyer Ferguson (Billings, MT) scored her 9th game-winning goal of the season in the 11th minute on a pass from Bethany Kent (Manassas, VA) and MacKenzie Schmidt (Columbus, OH). Taylor Norman (Springfield, VA) scored 1 minute later on a pass from Stephanie Hubbard (Sanford, NC). Hubbard scored in the 23rd minute on a Kent corner kick. Schmidt scored in the 32nd minute.
The Spirits took a 4-0 lead into the break and converted on 2 penalty kicks in the 2nd half. Madison Gurule (Montrose, CO) scored the 1st penalty and Jessi Carter (Tampa, FL) scored the 2nd penalty of the half. The Spirits out shot Wesleyan 22-0 and had a 12-0 corner kick advantage.
Salem will play the winner of the Wesleyan versus Spelman quarterfinal match in the semifinals next Saturday at 11:00.