HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- Covenant women's soccer's excellent season came to a heartbreaking end on Friday as they fell in penalty kicks to Huntingdon, 4-2, at the Loretta P. Spencer Sports Complex in the CCS semifinals.
After a banner regular season where the Scots (7-6-2) swept all the major regular season conference awards and had 10 athletes win All-CCS distinctions, Covenant has a lot to be proud of and build on going forward.
Senior
Bronwyn Kickasola now finishes her remarkable career with 202 saves, the fourth most in program history, while
Gretchen Caswell concluded her time having logged 3,644 minutes on the defensive end.
Lila Wiley's career year puts her at 15 career goals, while
Blythe Jelley played six minutes in her final stanza.
During the match,
AT Simon and Caswell played every one of the 110 minutes, while Kickasola made six saves in her final appearance. Wiley and
Georgie Strawbridge led the team with three shots on frame each.
The Scots tried first to get on the board in the 14th minute, as Wiley discovered a chance, but Hawks (7-7-2) keeper Libby Williams made one of her 13 saves to keep the match scoreless.
Strawbridge and Simon would also gain chances on net before half, but could not convert as the match went into the half scoreless.
Kickasola had to get to work in the 56th and 58th minutes, making her first two saves, and then added a third in the 74th minute to hold the match in a deadlock. Strawbridge,
Sydney Morris, and
Campbell Ayres attempted shots late, but none found any room past Williams, as the match went into overtime.
The best chance for Covenant came in the first overtime, as Wiley drew a foul inside the box to force a penalty kick to win it. However, Williams denied the shot from
Elle Cherry, and then subsequently stopped
Abbey Heupel and
Kensley Elam's later chances to force a second overtime.
In the second overtime, the defense continued to shine, holding Huntingdon to no shots on frame, while generating five chances of their own, with Wiley,
Oli Conrad, Strawbridge, and Simon all unable to put one home, as the match went to penalty kicks.
In that penalty kick session, the Hawks made their first three shots, while Williams denied two of Covenant's first three shots. After Simon converted hers and Kickasola saved the fourth, the match ended on Shaylinn McFarland's make on the Hawks fifth attempt to send them to the CCS Championship.
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