With the season on the line, the Covenant College women's soccer teamtraveled to No. 3 seed Belhaven for the CCS Semifinals. The Scots kept their seventh-straight clean sheet and left Mississippi with a 1-0 win to advance to the Conference Championship.
In the 13th minute, Belhaven came close to taking the lead as Kaci Craft's shot hit the woodwork. Madeline Andrews had Covenant's only shot of the first half in the 22nd that missed high to the right after a corner kick. The Scots continued to rely heavily on their defense as they allowed just two more shots the remainder of the first half, neither of which were on goal.
At the half, the Blazers had committed eight fouls while Covenant had just four.
Rachel Wall scored what turned out to be the winning goal in the 56th minute with a shot that hit the bottom of the right goalpost before finding the back of the net. With Lucy Sandhoff out of her goal, Emma Antonoplos chipped the ball over her, but luckily for Covenant the ball just missed high.
Late in the game, Gretchen Caswell had her header well saved by the Belhaven keeper to keep the match at 1-0. Belhaven kept trying to find the late equalizer but strong defending saw out the match for the Scots.
Covenant moves to 3-3 all-time against Belhaven. Belhaven outshot Covenant 15-6 with each team having just two shots on target. The Blazers had four corner kicks while the Scots had three. Belhaven had 14 fouls and Covenant committed nine. Each team had two yellow cards.
Covenant has won six games in a row.
Covenant travels to No. 2 seed Maryville for the Conference Championship on Saturday. The two teams played to a 1-1 draw earlier this year.