The Belmont Abbey junior forward Ananda Gebreyesus scored twice and senior defender Kristin Foster posted three assists as the second seeded Crusaders women's soccer team advanced to the semifinal round of the Conference Carolinas Tournament with a 4-0 defeat of the seventh-seeded Converse College Valkyries this afternoon at Alumni Field. The Crusaders move to the semifinal round as they improve to 10-9, while Converse, which qualified for the tournament for the first time, ends its season with a record of 7-10-2.

Belmont Abbey moves to 10-0-0 all time against Converse, and will host Limestone Thursday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. in the semifinal round.

The Crusaders controlled the game from the start, as they outshot Converse 25-2 and held a 15-4 edge in corner kicks. Freshman Meghan Philp gave the Abbey a lead it would never lose in the 23rd minute as Foster served a cross from the right sideline, right to the head of Philp, whose finish found the back of the net.

The match stayed 1-0 through the end of the first half, but the Crusaders struck three times in the final 45 minutes, two by Gebreyesus, the first coming in the 56th minute. Foster floated a shot from the left flank to the far right post, where Gebreyesus ran the ball down and volleyed home the winner with her right knee to move the lead to 2-0.

Less than three minutes later, Foster and Gebreyesus connected again with a carbon copy of the previous goal. Foster sent a long pass to the far post, where Gebreyesus met the pass and tapped in an easy goal.

30 minutes later, with 1:46 left on the clock, Simone Melvin closed the scoring with a beautiful, left footed shot from 20 yards out that struck the bottom of the crossbar and bounced straight down over the line for her second goal in as many matches.