No. 4 Alabama State 1, No. 5 Prairie View A&M 0
Box Score
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – Birgit Rijnders’ strike at the 65
th minute allowed Alabama State to avenge an earlier season defeat over Prairie View A&M, as the defending champion Lady Hornets outlasted Prairie View A&M 1-0 to advance to the semifinals of the 2018 Southwestern Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer Tournament.
Alabama State (7-10) advances to the semifinals to take on No. 1 seed Grambling State in a rematch of the 2017 SWAC Soccer Tournament Finals.
After a defensive-minded battle in the first half, Alabama State came alive to open the second half. After an offsides call negated a goal by Alabama State’s Ashley Thomas, Rijnders took a pass from Teaggan Ilela and bounced one in off the crossbar out of the reach of Prairie View goalie Quinn Josiah for the decisive mark.
Similar to the teams’ first meeting on Oct. 5 – where the Lady Panthers peppered the net with a barrage of early tries -- Prairie View A&M wasted no time setting the pace from first touch, dominating possession early and stressing the Lady Hornets’ defense in the initial goings.
Alabama State stood firm however, as Gianna Guyot managed to get mitts on a Jojo Bernal shot aimed just under the crossbar 90 seconds in as well as a Blair Lane try minutes later.
From that point, the sides battled to a defensive stalemate. Though Prairie View was able to stymie Alabama State’s attempts at mounting offense, the defending champions would regroup to prevent the Lady Panthers from turning those stops into quality chances of their own.
The Lady Panthers eventually got a good look in the 33
rd minute as Jojo Bernal sprinted ahead for a chance, but she was unable to convert.
Prairie View (7-10-2) outshot Alabama State 16-7, including an 8-7 edge in shots on the net. Gianna Guyot turned in a clean sheet with eight saves, while Josiah stopped seven. Alabama State was whistled for 11 fouls to PVAMU’s seven.