The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s soccer team battled Southern Conference-leading Furman to overtime Friday night at Finley Stadium but fell 1-0 in the first extra period.
The Mocs fall to 4-9-4 overall and 2-4-2 in SoCon action while the Paladins remain undefeated against the league at 8-0 and improve to 12-2-1 on the year.
“That’s a really good Furman team,” Chattanooga head coach Gavin McKinney said. “They were 7-0 in league play coming in to here.
I thought we fought hard, from front to back, we defended well.”
Furman scored the Golden Goal in the 96th minute. Caitlyn Reilly passed the ball over the top into the box to Furman’s leading scorer Molly Dwyer. She picked it up and slotted a shot into the left side for at the 95:47 mark for the sudden victory.
Furman outshot the Mocs 21-4 with a 10-2 shots on goal advantage. Reilly had a game-high seven shots with six on goal and Dwyer had a five shots. Four more Paladins managed a pair of shots each.
Chattanooga keeper Bailey Coppedge grabbed a career-high eight saves in the match. Jordan Mueller had two shots for the Mocs with Chloe Arnold and Catherine Meyer each getting one apiece.
“Bailey was awesome tonight,” McKinney said. “Really solid in goal. We’re fortunate that we have two very good keepers in Bailey and Melia [Correa]. Melia was sick tonight so she was unavailable. Bailey stepped in and was fantastic.”
Furman has only conceded one goal in conference play this season in a 2-1 win over Western Carolina.
“They are a very well organized bunch,” McKinney said. “We had some good moments on the all and created some good chances for ourselves. Our intent is to play with a purpose. There were times that we moved the ball quite well and created some chances because of it. We’ve just got to find a way to finish.
“I feel bad for the girls not getting a result out of it being so close against Furman, against a team we’ve never beat. To be that close and not walk away with something is disappointing."
The Mocs will close out the regular season Sunday afternoon against Wofford at 2:00 p.m.
“Huge, huge game,” McKinney said. “If we win it we get three points and still in a good position. It will be Senior Day for us. We should be up and we should be ready for it. We’ve got to recover tomorrow and get ourselves ready.”
Prior to kick off, Chattanooga will honor its six seniors in Senior Day festivities. All fans in attendance will receive a WHITE OUT t-shirt for the game. Admission is FREE.
SCORING SUMMARY
No.
Team
Goal Scorer
Assist
1
FUR
Molly Dwyer (9)
Caitlyn Reilly