Elon Women’s Soccer Drops Regular Season Finale Against UNCG

ELON, N.C. – The Elon University women’s soccer team dropped its regular-season finale tonight, Oct. 24, at Rudd Field, dropping a 2-0 decision to UNCG.

Elon drops to 6-8-6 (4-3-4 Southern Conference) on the year with the setback and the Phoenix earns the fifth seed in this weekend’s Southern Conference Tournament quarterfinals. Elon will take on fourth-seeded Appalachian State on Sunday, Oct. 28, at 2 p.m. at the ASU Soccer Complex in Boone, N.C.

UNCG improves to 12-6-1 (9-1-1 SoCon) with the victory and the Spartans win the SoCon regular season title and earn the top seed in the SoCon Tournament.

“Give UNCG a lot of credit, they clearly wanted to win badly tonight,” said Phoenix head coach Chris Neal. “We had several chances to score tonight and it just didn’t bounce our way. We look forward to starting fresh this weekend in the conference tournament.”

UNCG took a 1-0 lead in the 32nd minute when Katherine Rodriquez landed a strike in the back of the net off a pass from the right by Lauren Hein.

The Phoenix had two quality chances in the opening frame by Nicole Dennion and Kendall Stanley. Dennion nearly lofted a shot over UNCG goalie Jamie Simmons for a goal in the 12th minute, but it landed just over the post and out of play. Stanley’s strike in the 29th minute was corralled by Simmons to keep the Phoenix scoreless.

The Spartans took a 2-0 lead in the 54th minute when Hein headed in a bouncing ball in front of the box to extend UNCG’s lead.

Dennion nearly cut UNCG’s lead in half with less than three minutes remaining, but her shot ricocheted off the post and the Spartans managed to clear it.

Tonight marked the final home game for seniors Claire O’Keeffe, Jaclyn Wood, Shannon Foley and Shannon Cosgrove.

Sunday’s contest against Appalachian State marks the first ever SoCon Tournament match between the Phoenix and Mountaineers. It marks the 13th all-time meeting between the two schools.