By Zack Ciboth
The UNC Pembroke Women’s soccer team picked up a key inter division Conference Carolinas win over the Chowan Hawks Tuesday night in the Braves annual Pink Out Game. The Hawks jumped on the Braves early, but UNCP responded late and held off a rally to take the match 3-2 and improve to 6-2-2 on the season and 5-0-2 in conference play.
Chowan proved to be a tough test and a scrappy team all night for the Braves, and they continued to prove that tying the game up in the 76th minute responding the Braves as Abigail Simon made it 2-2 off an assist from Laura Hulme. It didn’t take long for the Braves to respond in the 79th minute when Eli Soderberg gained control of a loose ball and fired a 20-yarder into the back of the net to give UNCP the 3-2 lead. The Braves defense would hold strong and come away with the win.
In the first 21 minutes of the action the Hawks broke the scoring drought when Natasha Bailey found the foot of Regan Jackson who it sent it into the back of the net for the 1-0 lead. The Braves found themselves in multiple scoring opportunities but couldn’t convert as Chowan held the lead at the half.
The Braves came out with a different kind of fire in the second half wasting no time driving down the field. They got on the scoreboard with a Mercy Bell goal to tie it up at 1-1 in the 65th minute. Minutes later Bell cleared Hawk defenders and fired another shot into the net for the 2-1 lead.
Some more records fell for the Braves as they continue their march back to a fourth straight Conference Carolinas Championship as Bell broke a UNCP career record for a multi-goal game performance marking her 10th of her career. Anna Grossheim tallied seven total shots with four coming on goal.
The Braves will hit the road for the Battle of I-95 this Saturday against Francis Marion. This will be a huge division conference matchup for two of top teams in the conference. Kickoff is set for 4:30 p.m.