Box Score The Belmont Abbey women's soccer team fell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament with a 4-1 loss to the 14th-ranked North Georgia Nighthawks this afternoon at the Moretz Sports Complex in Hickory, North Carolina. The third-seeded Nighthawks advance to Sunday's second round matchup against second-seed Lenoir-Rhyne as they improve to 17-4-1, while the sixth-seeded Crusaders end the year with a mark of 12-7-2.
The two teams met in the regular season on September 29, a 2-0 Nighthawks victory in Belmont and today's matchup was the first between the two schools in the NCAA Tournament.
North Georgia struck first in the 14th minute as Rachel Van Horn scored off of a Cicely Taliaferro pass for her 13th goal of the year.
The Nighthawks held that lead until the 39th minute when Crusaders junior forward Meghan Philp netted her 14th goal of the season, an unassisted marker with 38:37 showing to pull the Abbey level.
The match stayed a 1-1 stalemate until early in the second half when the Nighthawks scored the first of their three goals in the last 41 minutes.
Mollie Arrendale assisted Jacy Ramey's go ahead goal in the 50th minute, then Taliaferro, the Peach Belt Conference Player of the Year, tacked on two goals in an 11 minute span, the first in the 78th minute and the last in the 89th for her 18th goal of the year.
North Georgia outshot the Abbey 31-3 and held a 5-2 edge in corner kicks.
In her last collegiate match, senior goalkeeper Hannah Kohls stopped 12 shots. Fellow seniors Simone Melvin, Ale Moucha, Melissa Pereira, Montana Rindahl and Stephanie Aguilar are the first senior class in school history to play in three consecutive NCAA Tournaments.
Belmont Abbey closed the season with a 10-2-0 record after starting 2-5-2, earning the program's eighth Conference Carolinas Championship in 20 seasons of play. 17 of 20 Crusader teams have won either a Conference Carolinas regular season or tournament championship.
