SALISBURY, N.C. – The No. 8 ranked Catawba Women's Soccer team continued their unbeaten season at home on Saturday but fell short of victory on Senior Day against the visiting Carson-Newman Eagles, with the final whistle yielding a 1-1 scoreline.
Catawba (13-0-2) faced another stiff conference test from Carson-Newman (9-3-3) and despite once again leading the game in most categories found themselves trailing in a game for the first time since their 2-1 win against Tampa in the season opener back in August. Both goals came within an eight minute span just past the hour mark, with Catawba not trailing for long but neither team able to score again.
Maja Bengtsson broke the deadlock in the 65th minute with a brilliant strike, picking the ball up just inside the box after an attempted header to clear the ball fell right to her before taking a touch to gain space and smashing a shot off the volley past Catawba keeper Sierra Davis. It was the only shot on target of the afternoon for Carson-Newman, which snapped Catawba's streak of consecutive clean sheets at 11 games.
But the lead wouldn't last long, as Catawba snapped into form and swarmed for an equalizer, with Hannah Dunn and Sharon Mayes forcing saves from Carson-Newman keeper Laura Germes. The break would come in the 73rd minute, as Maria Rayburn picked the ball up for Catawba and proceed to go on a superb run through several defenders before lofting a ball over the Eagles' backline to an onrushing Helen Summerell, who beat Germes to the pass and deftly chipped her to make it 1-1.
While both teams continued to push for the edge after finding themselves deadlocked again, there wouldn't be another tally despite several good attempts. Catawba paced the game 14-2 in shots, with Germes being called into action to make seven saves for Carson-Newman. Catawba will look to regroup before hitting the road again to play Columbus State at 2:00 PM ET on Wednesday, October 19th.
