The Belmont Abbey women's soccer team fell to the Lenoir-Rhyne Bears 2-1 this evening in the opening round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament, held in Columbus, Georgia. The Bears advance to face the top-seeded Columbus State Cougars Sunday afternoon at 12:00 as they improve to 17-2-1, while the Abbey ends its season with a record of 17-2-3.

The two teams met in the regular season, battling to a 0-0 draw in Belmont on October 11, but this time would be different as the Abbey jumped ahead in the 23rd minute as freshman forward Emily Archer found the back of the net for the seventh time this season, taking a feed from Carly Kensinger for the goal.

Abbey's lead held for just five minutes as the Bears gained the equalizer on a penalty kick, with Catherine Hauck beating Anna Donaldson to deadlock the match at one.

That was all of the scoring until the 82nd minute whe the Bears jumped ahead with the winning goal. Audrey Moore assisted Mariel Mena, who fired home a shot from 30 yards out to give L-R the lead.

Belmont Abbey threatened with 25 seconds left, as Kensinger fired a corner kick to the center of the box, where it was cleared away by a L-R defender.

L-R outshot the Abbey 11-9. Both teams took five corner kicks. Donaldson, in her final collegiate match, made four saves.