Shreveport- The Centenary women's soccer team recorded its first win of the season on Tuesday evening as the Ladies received a late goal from sophomore D/MF Kylie Zeller (Denham Springs, La.) to edge the Belhaven University Blazers 1-0 in a non-conference contest at Mayo Field.
The match went into a lightning delay at halftime that lasted an hour and a half, thus the victory was worth the wait. The Ladies (1-4) and Blazers (1-2-1) played to a scoreless draw for 80 minutes until Zeller broke the tie with her first-career goal and the Ladies' first of the season, in the 82nd minute.
Belhaven fouled the Ladies roughly 25 minutes from the goal and Zeller took a free kick from the right side of the field and rocketed a shot high into the left corner of the net past Belhaven GK Lauren Knorr and send the Centenary bench into a frenzy and Zeller's teammates to her for a much-deserved celebration.
Centenary and Belhaven met in Jackson, Miss. last season and played to a 0-0 tie and Tuesday night looked destined to end the same way until Zeller's score. The Ladies now lead the all-time series 4-1-1. The Ladies had lost a pair of 1-0 matches so far this season but were able to reverse the result on Tuesday.
Junior GK Madison Ersoff (Shreveport, La.) registered her first shutout of the season and second of her career as she made four critical saves on Tuesday. Knorr, who entered the match at the start of the second half for the Blazers, made one save in her 45 minutes after starter Julianne Wilson did not make a save in the first half. Belhaven finished with a 17-6 advantage in shots and took eight corner kicks to the Ladies' two, but the visitors were unable to cash in on their multiple opportunities.
The Ladies remain at home for a pair of non-conference contests this weekend, facing Birmingham-Southern College on Friday evening (6 p.m.) and Millsaps College on Sunday afternoon (1 p.m.).
See the complete Ladies' schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/wsoc/2023-24/schedule
Admission is FREE to all Centenary home athletic contests. Live stats and live video stream are available for all Centenary home contests.
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