Women’s Soccer Season Concludes at Hands of Randolph-Macon in ODAC Quarterfinals
Quakers fourth-straight double-digit win campaign comes to close
from Bryce Johnson, Director of Athletic Communications
ASHLAND, Va. – Controlling the ball, the clock, and, in a sense, the popular vote of the 90 minutes of action at Nunnally Field on Election Day 2024, the fifth-seeded Guilford College women’s soccer team wound up dropping the electoral college, so to speak, 1-0, to the four-seed Randolph-Macon College in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Quarterfinals on Tuesday evening.
Another successful Quaker campaign does see them eclipse double-digit victories for the fourth-straight season finishing at 12-5-2, ending with an ODAC Tournament berth for the fourth consecutive year, matching their highest seeding in that span. The Yellow Jackets advance to 11-4-4 and will now move on to play top-seeded Washington & Lee in the Semifinals round.
Ady Franken (Peoria, Ill.) saw her brilliant Quaker career finish with a 10-5-2 record after facing 11 total shots and making five saves against one goal conceded. Zoe Long was strong in frame for the home team, she faced 31 shots, 12 on goal, and she was able to stop them all to complete the clean sheet and improve to 6-2-1.
Ariel Farmer scored her fifth goal of the season for Randolph-Macon and made her first game-winner of the year count. No assists were awarded on the night. Naomi Anderson (Youngsville, N.C.) nearly out-shot the home squad on her own, firing nine shots on the evening, five of them on frame, although she could not find twine. Mya Rivera (Parish, Fla.) followed with five shot attempts for GC.
Randolph-Macon got a handful of early looks on frame, but for the most part, the first half of play made Nunnally Field look more like an old western stockade that a soccer pitch with the Quakers peppering shots in the direction of the Yellow Jacket net. GC fired 16 shots in the first half with eight of them on frame against just six shots and four on target for R-MC. The guests were completely in control for the opening 45, but could not manage to breakthrough.
Entering the second stanza, the trend of GC commanding the ball and taking a ton of shots maintained as they took 15 looks against just five for the Yellow Jackets, but eventually R-MC would break the stalemate.
In the 73rd minute, there was a bit of a messy play in the Guilford defensive zone. Carmen Ellis (Johnson City, Tenn.) nearly got the ball out of harms way, but her clear attempt hit Grace Overton (Apex, N.C.) who was picking herself up off the turf after getting knocked over. In the congestion, Farmer bumped into a Quaker defender and nearly ran into her own teammate, but somehow, someway, maintained possession and got free at the top of the 18’ straight-away. She used her left foot to roll a perfectly placed shot into the bottom-right corner of the frame to break the ice.
The Quakers upped the pressure down the stretch but could not even the score and the match finalized at 1-0.
This concluded Guilford’s 2024 season.
#GoQuakes