Bethel advances to 2nd Round of NAIA Women's Soccer National Tournament
OLATHE, Kan. (Nov. 16, 2005) Fifteenth seed Bethel College (Tenn.) defeated nineteenth seed John Brown University (Ark.) 3-1 on Wednesday afternoon in the first round of the 2005 Women's Soccer National Championships being held at College Boulevard Activity Center in Olathe, Kansas.
Bethel and John Brown played to a 1-1 first half tie, trading goals midways through the half. Bethel struck first when Carla Chambers (FR / Kingston, Jamaica) took a chip from Candice Cunningham (SO / Mississauga, Ont. Canada) in the 28th minute and knocked it home from eight-yards out. The Golden Eagles answered back just five minutes later when Nikki Ganter scored off a corner kick.
Bethel wasted little time in the second half re-gaining the lead. In the 50th minute, Alicia James (JR / Kingston, Jamaica) scored her tenth goal of the season from 21-yards out. Leah O'Grady (SO / Mt. Pearl, NL Canada) and Cheryl Noonan (SR / Ajax, Ont. Canada) assisted on the goal. The Lady Wildcats added an insurance goal in the 64th minute when Leah O'Grady took her own rebounded shot and snuck it past the keeper, giving BC the 3-1 lead.
For the game, Bethel out shot John Brown 17-10 and held an 11-7 edge in Shots on Goal. Ugo Opara (SO / San Antonio, TX) collected five saves in the win. JBU's Natalie Wall took the loss in goal with eight saves.
Bethel improves to 14-5-3 on the season, while John Brown ends their run at 13-6-2. Bethel advances to the second round of the national tournament where they will face the tournament's #2 seed Graceland (Iowa) on Thursday, November 17th at 2:15 pm CST at the College Boulevard Activity Center.