The Lenoir-Rhyne Women’s Soccer team defeated Mars Hill 2-0 on Sunday afternoon to move on to the SAC Semifinals. The Bears will now face Carson-Newman on Friday afternoon as the Bears will be two wins away from winning their 4th SAC tournament title. On Sunday, the Bears used a goal seconds before halftime from Neve Duston then Ria Acton connected one minute into the second half to help the Bears advance.

It looked like the halftime break was going to be scoreless after Duston’s shot was saved with 49 seconds left in the half but after the goal kick, the Bears got the ball back and Alexis Cagno passed it to Duston at the top of the box who beat Camryn Miller to the near lower post to give the Bears a 1-0 lead at the break. Duston’s goal was her 19th career goal.
It did not take as long to score in the second half as Acton connected a PK just over a minute into the second half to extend the lead to 2-0.

S.A. Phillips stopped the only shot she saw in the first half while Kristin Oliver played the second half and tied a career high with five saves. Oliver also made five saves in the season opener against Lee.

The Bears held a 20-10 shot advantage and shot one more corner kicks then the Lions (7-6). 23 different players saw time on the pitch today for the Bears with 22 of them playing at least 15 minutes.

Duston played in her 88th career match, second most in program history. Duston can tie the record on Friday.

The Bears move to 31-25-9 all-time in the SAC Tournament. This is the 9th time the Bears are the No. 1 seed in the SAC Tournament and two of their three titles came from this seed. The Bears are 3-0 in the SAC tournament against the Lions.

Acton now has 71 career points which moves her into a tie for 9th in program history.

The Bears improve to 14-0-3. The SAC Tournament heads to Matthews, N.C. for the Semi-finals as the Bears will face Carson-Newman kick-off is schedule for 11:00 AM this Friday as the winner will head to the SAC Title game on Sunday.