Lady 'Cat three-peat! Bethel beats Covenant for Region XII title

Lady 'Cat three-peat! Bethel beats Covenant for Region XII title

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Lookout Mountain, GA For the third straight season, the Bethel College Lady Wildcat soccer team is heading the to NAIA National Tournament after beating host Covenant College (Ga.) in the NAIA Region XII Championship on Saturday 2-0.
Bethel earned the trip to the championship match after dismantling Virginia Intermont 4-1 on Friday in the semi-finals. Leah O'Grady (SO / Mt. Pearl, NL Canada) recorded a hat trick (three goals) in the victory. Candice Cunningham (SO / Mississauga, Ont. Canada) netted Bethel's other goal in the victory. Bethel avenged a regular season 4-1 loss to the Lady Cobras, in a match held on Oct. 2 in Bristol, VA.

Saturday's championship match-up pitted the top two teams in the region. These two teams are no strangers to each other. Bethel stunned Covenant last season in the finals 1-0 on a last second goal. The two teams played to a 1-1 tie during the regular season this year. The game, again, was tight as the teams played to a scoreless first half. Bethel finally got on the board in the 59th minute of play when Alicia James (JR / Kingston, Jamaica) took a deflected ball in the box and shot it past the goalkeeper, giving BC a 1-0 lead. Fellow Kingston, Jamaica teammate Philisha Lewis added an insurance goal in the 88th minute, off an assisted pass from Alicia James. Bethel dominated the flow of play, out shooting Covenant 24-8 on the afternoon. Bethel goalkeeper Ugo Opara (SO / San Antonio, TX) recorded the win in goal with two saves. Covenant's Anna Meiners too the loss with eight saves.

Bethel is coming off its sixth straight KIAC Championship. A year ago, Bethel had a great run through the national tournament, advancing to the final eight, falling to eventual national runner-up Concordia (Ore.) in PKs.

Bethel improves to 13-5-2, while Covenant ends their season with a 14-4-2 mark. Bethel advances to the NAIA Women's Soccer National Tournament in Olathe, Kansas on November 16-22. The official draws will be announced later in the week.