CSU Wins Region Title; Advances to Play West Florida in NCAA Quarterfinal Sunday

Pensacola, FL - Columbus State got a first-half goal from senior Kellie Myles and made that one score stand, taking a 1-0 lead in the Third Round of the NCAA Division II Women's Soccer Championship. With the win, CSU captures its second consecutive Southeast Region title and is one of just eight teams left in Division II.

The Lady Cougars defeated Carson-Newman 6-0 on the road in September, but Friday's game was a different story. The two teams battled a 20-mile-per-hour wind and cold temperatures for the entire game, making for a defensive struggle. Myles got CSU on the board at the 24:33 mark of the first half as she took a Jill Walthall pass and headed it past Eagles keeper Lauren MacKenzie and inside the far post to make it 1-0.

CSU would go on to out-shoot C-N 5-1 in the half with MacKenzie collecting one save. The Eagles were more aggressive in the second half, getting off four shots, but Monica Sanchez collected two saves and the other two shots were off frame. The Lady Cougars, meanwhile, had several scoring chances in their seven shots, but MacKenzie rose to the challenge and collected four saves to give her a total of five on the day.

CSU held a 12-5 advantage in shots, but - as it has all year - the defense rose to the challenge. The Eagles led in corner kicks 5-2, but did not get a single scoring opportunity off any of those kicks.

Carson-Newman (16-6-1) led in fouls by an 8-3 count in a cleanly played contest. There were no cautions or ejections.

CSU (21-3-1) moves to Sundays NCAA Quarterfinal game against host West Florida. The Argonauts defeated Rollins 2-0 earlier on Friday and enter the contest with an unbeaten record. UWF handed CSU one of its three defeats on this same field on October 1, winning by a 5-0 count. The Lady Cougars and Argonauts have met only twice in the program's brief history with UWF owning a 2-0 advantage, winning the only other meeting before this season in 2004, CSU's inaugural season.

Sunday's Quarterfinal game will kick off at 1:30 PM Sunday with the winner advancing to the Division II Championship in Tampa next weekend.

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