DEMOREST, Ga. – By the narrowest of margins here Saturday, Maryville missed out on winning the inaugural Collegiate Conference of the South women's soccer championship.
Piedmont converted its last three attempts in the penalty-kick shootout and saved the last two Maryville tries to escape with a 3-2 margin after a scoreless double-overtime draw.
All five Maryville kicks from the spot were on target, but Piedmont's Haylee Dornan saved the first, fourth and fifth tries. The Scots had moved in front 2-0 in the shootout after conversions by
Hannah Smoot and
Sierra Lee. But Piedmont was on the mark in its last three kicks and took home the CCS tournament trophy.
"I feel bad for us because we didn't have the penalty-kick win in the end, but the way we played, I don't feel bad at all," Maryville head coach
Pepe Fernandez said. "We played fantastically. So many of our players played their best game of the year and it was just a really fine margin.
"We had a couple of really good chances to win it, they had a couple of good chances to win it, but the soccer we played today and the enthusiasm we played with today from such a young team on the road was something very special. It was one of the most special games I watched in my time at Maryville."
Couple of Close Calls
Piedmont nearly scored right at the halftime horn. The Lady Lions hurried as the clock neared zero and took a corner kick that bounced to the feet of Abby Ryan. The Piedmont defender got off a left-footed kick that found the upper netting just after the horn sounded.
The goal was correctly disallowed.
In the second half, Piedmont's Kaity Hemperly clanged a shot from 25 yards out off the left goalpost and out. Maryville then answered and
Macy Lindsey tapped one just over the bar with 35 seconds remaining. Nothing in either of the overtime periods came as close as those two shots to scoring.
And so it went to the shootout, Maryville's second in as many matches. But after a 4-2 shootout win over Belhaven in the semifinals, this one didn't go the Scots' way.
Maryville finished with an 18-12 edge in shots, including 6-2 in overtime. Piedmont worked its way to an 8-3 margin in corner kicks.
"Penalties are penalties – the best players in the world miss them and then people who don't ever score step up and make them," Fernandez said. "But I believe in them, and I'm more focused on how well we played in the game while coming on the road in a very tough environment."
Piedmont with the draw moves to 12-5-3, while Maryville finishes its season 11-4-5. Fernandez says the future is bright for his Scots in the coming years.
Sydney Mahr and
Anabelle Procter earned spots on the All-Tournament Team. Mahr made one save in regulation and one in the PK shootout, while Procter helped generate the Maryville offensive effort.
"It bodes well for the future," Fernandez said. "This group has been so surprisingly good all year long. And the way so many people had their best games today, it would be hard to pick out a star of the match."
