(All photos courtesy Madison Schulte/Madison Schulte Media)
The Emory Eagles advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Division III women’s soccer playoffs with a 1-0 win over Pacific Lutheran University Sunday afternoon in Northeast Atlanta. They now prepare for a matchup against the 21-0-0 Loras (IA) College Duhawks next weekend.
Emory had some success with possession and attack up the left-hand side in the first fifteen minutes but didn’t get their first chance on-target until the 19th minute. In the next three minutes, Sophomore forward Kaitlyn Nimmer and Freshman Emory Bozzuti decided to test Lutes keeper Abby Winkler from distance. The first shot was an easy one-hopper but Nimmer’s volley in the 22nd was just wide from 12 yards out.
“Pacific Lutheran has really good forwards,” Emory head coach Sue Patberg told SDH after the match. “And we knew we're going to have to shut them down. Lucky for us, we were able to play all 24 players that we could dress yesterday and PLU only subbed 4. So we knew we had that advantage going into today. And I think they really, our team drew from that early on.”
The visitors had their first challenge in the 24th minute as Kiana Gutierrez launched a corner kick to the far post that pinballed around near the goal line and was eventually cleared by the Eagles defense.
Emory would return the favor two minutes later as Bozzuti launched a shot to the far post that Winkler saved, but the rebound hit the underside of the crossbar and kicked back into the field of play. The hosts would have eight first-half shots and the visitors three as Winkler and her counterpart, Emory Junior Sophia Garcia, would keep the match scoreless after 45.
In the second half, Emory dialed up the pressure on the Lutes picking up all four of their corner kicks in the first 11 minutes- Winkler making two big saves along the way.
“They were dropping hard numbers and it was getting really clogged up centrally,” Patberg admitted. “And we kept trying to play through the middle of the field. We were like ‘we've got to go wide.’ And then the other thing that I think we adjusted to was, when we played it wide, we were slow. Our timing of our runs to help our outside back with the ball were not good. And so once we adjusted that, I think the game just opened up and we were able to find our center forward and she could turn because they were dropping so much. Then we were able to run at them a little bit more.”
The breakthrough in the match came on another moment of pressure from Emory in the 72nd minute as Nimmer would be the benefactor of chaos inside the Pacific Lutheran 18. Mikayla Camp launched a shot from beyond the D and Winkler had it tracked on the ground. She decided to play it out to her left toward the edge of the 18-yard box but pressure from behind created a turnover. The initial shot was cleared but Nimmer would eventually slam the ball into the net for the first goal of the match.
“It was just a scrappy goal, the first one,” Nimmer told SDH. “My teammate, Emily Woodall, wins the ball from the keeper. She just doesn't stop and she gets the ball. It gets into the box off a deflection and I was just there to clean it up. It was just relentless energy for myself and the team and it paid off.”
“We had told our center forward... You know the goalkeeper, can you kind of sneak attack on her? Let her put the ball on the ground and then sneak behind her...?” Coach Patberg said. “Their keeper was putting the ball down and it was actually our assistant coaches who had that thought... Cat Whitehill and the staff... They had that idea. Not me. So it was amazing.”
The Eagles defense would hold short of one chance with two-and-a-half minutes to go for the win to advance them into the third round of the 2024 postseason.
“Yesterday when we watched the Maryville game, with 6 minutes left in the game, #11 (Hannah Cecil) gets in behind the back line and their back line was not together. And she got in behind them and then she finishes it,” Patberg says. “That was my thought is just we got to keep everything in front of us and our back line has to be together.”
“The final 15 trying to defend it and shut it out after we scored, we all just kind of huddled up and talked about the gamesmanship and how we just have to control the game kind of getting it to the corner,” defender Michelle Davidson said. “It's already been a tough 45 plus already and so just kind of controlling the game, we were making sure defensively we were staying sharp- not making any silly mistakes getting it out of our half.”
Nimmer would finish with ten of Emory’s 23 shots in the match (eight on target)- compared to only three for PLU (two on target). Eight different players registered a shot for the Eagles compared to three for the Lutes.
“I couldn't be more excited. I mean, as the season went on, I thought this could be possible, and I really feel like we're exactly where we're supposed to be and we've completely earned our path here. I’m just so, so proud of the team for staying the course and just locking it down defensively.”
“Just going throughout the season, we've definitely seen a bunch of development, especially with the freshmen and with the team chemistry,” Davidson admits. “So, I would definitely believe it if you told me at the beginning of the season that we would still be playing after this weekend.”
The match in Iowa against Loras is set for Saturday, November 23rd.
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