NORFOLK, Va. – It was an offensive showdown Thursday night with a game-winning goal by Whitney Ravan in the first overtime period lifting Georgia State to a 4-3 win over Old Dominion.
After a first half that featured six total goals, and a second half that had none, the match went into overtime. It was Georgia State's third overtime match of the season. They were 0-1-1 in overtime matches before tonight.
Four minutes into the overtime period on the 78-degree Virginia evening, junior Alyssia Feronti crossed from the left side and Ravan deflected the pass into the right corner of the goal. The win was the team's first since September 9 and the first conference win of the season.
"It's nice to be on other end of these close games and get a win in overtime, since we've been on bottom end recently," coach Derek Leader said after the win.
"To be able to score four goals has the team feeling good about ourselves," Coach said. "Obviously we need to prevent goals scored against us, but the girls really came through and performed above and beyond expectations. We're happy many players were able to provide spark and different players were able to score goals in the game. We were glad to have young players gain a lot more minutes in the match as well."
"Everyone from the back line to front were very dangerous and played a huge part in tonight's win," Leader noted. "It comes at a good time and now we need to get ready to face a very good William & Mary at home."
Old Dominion's Kelly Evans struck first in the match, scoring the first of the seven goals in the match just two minutes in. Not to be outdone, GSU junior Lyndsey Gaffney leveled the score with a goal of her own less than one minute later. It was her second goal of the season.
At the 14th minute, Old Dominion's Ashlee Coutu scored a goal off a blocked shot to put the Lady Monarchs back up 2-1. Four minutes later, junior Jordan Young evened the score for the Panthers with an assist from Ravan.
The two teams battled for another 20 minutes before Old Dominion took the lead for the third time in the match. Meghan Cozens became the third different player for the Lady Monarchs to score in the match. And for the third time in the match, Georgia State responded swiftly, with a goal from Feronti to tie the match at 3-3 seven minutes before the end of the first half. That score would hold going into halftime despite a late flurry of shots from the Panthers.
Unlike the first half offensive explosion, the second half featured no goals scored by either team. Georgia State dominated the second half shots category by a margin of 7-to-2, but neither team could put it past the goalies. GSU led in shots on the evening, 21-11, and shots on goal, 10-3, as ODU's goalie kept the hosts alive with six saves. Four different Panthers scored goals on the evening, with three of the four who scored also having an assist.
The match also featured four GSU freshman players (Ashley Nagy, Miranda Griffin, Margaret Bruemmer and Lauren Harriman) seeing increased minutes on the field. Leader said he was proud of their play and that was he was happy to have the opportunity to put them out there to garner more experience.
GSU is now 4-7-1 on the season, picking up its first CAA win (1-4). The Panthers now have a 3-4 report card on the road this season. This win snapped a four-match losing streak, all coming in CAA play.
Ravan, who had a goal and an assist this evening, upped her team lead with four goals and three assists on the season for 11 points. It was her second game-winning kick of the season for the sophomore from Colorado.
This was Georgia State's first four-goal match since last season, when the Panthers accomplished that feat four different times over the season, including a win over Old Dominion. This is the second straight match where the Panthers have scored four goals against the Lady Monarchs.
This match was also the best offensive showing for the Panthers. The team had its most shots (21), goals (4) and shots on goal (10). Three different players, Feronti, Young and Ravan, all recorded one goal and one assist in the match as well.
"I'm very proud of the way all the girls played, but I was very happy for Whitney to get her second game-winning goal of the season," Leader said. "I also thought Jordan played her best game of the season since scoring the game-winner at Mercer. Overall, I was very happy with the effort of all the players on this team."
The Panthers will take this positive momentum into Sunday's home match against William & Mary, who is currently receiving votes in the NSCAA poll at 10-3 overall and 4-0 in the CAA. The match will feature players wearing pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and will kickoff at 1 p.m. at the GSU Soccer Complex in Panthersville.
