Lakeland, Fla.- The number one ranked Southeastern University women's soccer program won a hard fought battle tonight against the University of South Carolina Beaufort to advance their record to an unblemished 12-0 after taking down the Sand Sharks 1-0 in the conference tournament semifinal matchup.
The match between the Fire and the Sand Sharks would prove to be a physical and hard fought battle that remained scoreless into the second 45 minutes into play. Neither team had been able to find the back of the net for a majority of the match until senior
Aisha Solorzano connected on her team leading 12
th goal of the season off of a
Naira Lopez assist in the 72
nd minute to put the Fire up 1-0. The assist by Lopez would put her at 12 total assists on the season which ranks second nationally. The lone goal by Solorzano would prove to be enough for the Fire to secure the victory as the Sand Sharks were unable to answer.
Although the Fire were only able to net a lone goal throughout the match the unit gave themselves multiple opportunities with 24 shots including 11 on goal as opposed to USCB's eight total. Head coach
Alan Berrios stated, "We knew that the difference in the game would be one all-out effort play and it came for us towards the end of the game.
Coming into the semifinal match the Fire and the Sand Sharks had met twice previously this season when the Fire defeated USCB 3-0 at home and then later was able to squeeze out a narrow 3-2 victory in overtime in South Carolina.
The Fire will next take on the reigning NAIA National Champions in the Keiser University Seahawks for the Sun Conference Tournament Championship title at home in Lakeland on Friday at 7 p.m. Earlier this season the Fire handed the Seahawks their first loss in over 20 games when they took the match 2-1 in overtime. When asked what the team would do to prepare for Keiser after tonight's victory Berrios stated, "We're going to put this game behind us, move forward and have a good couple days of training to put ourselves in the best position to be successful against Keiser."
