Sierra Brewer’s goal in the 20th minute stood up the rest of the way as the VMI Keydets defeated the Chattanooga Mocs, 1-0, in SoCon women’s soccer action Friday in Lexington, Va.
With the victory, VMI moves to 7-10 on the year and 4-4 in the SoCon and remains alive for the #6 seed in the upcoming conference tournament. What needs to happen for VMI to move up to that seed is, in large part, dependent upon late game results Friday evening.
UTC dropped to 6-9-2 overall and 4-3-1 in conference action with the loss.
On this day, Brewer provided all the margin VMI would need, scoring at 19:14 off an Emma Quirk corner kick. It was Brewer’s second goal of the year and accounted for all the scoring, as VMI won its fourth 1-0 decision of the season. Quirk’s assist on the play was her fifth of the year, tying her for the third-most in a season in program history.
In addition, the 1-0 victory was VMI’s seventh shutout of the season, setting a new school record.
The Keydets took the 1-0 advantage into halftime, as neither team was able to mount serious opportunities for the remainder of the half. VMI, however, had a key chance in the 52nd minute, when Blake Cashin bounced a try off the far post.
UTC came back by forcing a Ceci Keppeler save at 57:39, but VMI mounted another offensive threat moments later, when Taylor Callahan had a shot from point-blank range blocked by a defender. Katie Emig then made two saves for UTC in the 62nd and 63rd minutes, keeping the match at 1-0, VMI.
The Keydets dominated the offensive chances for most of the second half, but the Mocs had one more threat. Samantha Hogan of UTC got around the VMI defense and had an opportunity 1 v 1 against Keppeler, but the Keydet keeper came well out of the box and made a sprawling save on Hogan’s first touch, knocking the ball away.
That would prove to be the Mocs’ best chance of the afternoon, as VMI was able to post 17 shots in the second half en route to 25 for the match. It equals a season-high and, with the exception of last season’s match against Hampton, is the most shots the Keydets have posted against a Division I opponent since Nov. of 2008.
VMI outshot UTC 25-14 in the match. The Mocs had six corner kicks to five for VMI, and Emig made eight saves to seven for Keppeler.
Keppeler has now earned at least a share of the result in six of VMI’s shutouts this year (4.2), becoming the first keeper in school history to do so. In addition, if the season ended today, her goals against average of 1.32 would be the third-best in VMI annals (minimum 900 minutes).
VMI women’s soccer wraps up the regular season Sunday, playing host to the league-leading Samford Bulldogs at 2 p.m.Senior day ceremonies to recognize Lizzy Cotter, Emily Marbury and Kristen Whitehurst are scheduled to begin at 1:45 p.m.
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