March 12, 2017
CONWAY, S.C. – The Vanderbilt Commodores (3-2) looked to finish off their Carolina road trip with a win and they did just that Sunday afternoon. With most of the game being played in the pouring rain, the ‘Dores toughed out an 11-7 win over the Chanticleers (3-1) to hand them their first loss of the season.
Head coach Cathy Swezey was glad to see the team bounce back after the loss to No. 16 Elon earlier in the week.
“We are really happy to come away with this win,” said Swezey. “We needed to bounce back as a team after the Elon loss. And today’s weather conditions were rough. I was glad to see our girls rose above it and put together a good performance.”
Defense was a strong point for the Commodores this afternoon. They had two stretches in the game where they held the Chanticleers scoreless for 14:16 and 18:48 of game time.
Freshman Emily Mathewson opened the scoring on the afternoon at the 28:09 mark and gave the ‘Dores a 1-0 lead.
The Chanticleers would answer with two goals just 24 seconds apart to give them a 2-1 lead with 22:41 left in the first half.
The ‘Dores would answer with two goals of their own from Avery Hoelting and Julie Blaze to regain the lead with 19:03 remaining.
This would be the first strong defensive stretch for the Commodores Sunday afternoon, holding Coastal scoreless for over 14 minutes. The Chanticleers would finally break through and tie the game at 3 with 8:25 left in the first half.
The Commodores would strike for two straight goals once again. This time, the goals came from Jill Doherty and Julie Blaze to give them a 5-3 lead with 6:12 remaining.
The Chanticleers would get one back with 1:23 left in the half to make it a one score game at 5-4.
That looked to be the last goal of the first half but the Commodores answered right before the break. Emily Mathewson scored with 17 seconds left to give the ‘Dores a 6-4 lead at halftime.
Julie Blazed score the first goal of the second half and her second of the game with 27:28 left and gave the ‘Dores a 7-4 lead.
This would be another strong defensive stretch for the ‘Dores, as they kept Coastal off the board for over 18 minutes spanning back to the first half. The Chanticleers would score with 12:35 on the clock to make it a two-goal game at 7-5.
That would be the closest Coastal would get, as the Commodores would score four straight goals to extend the lead to the largest of the game.
Mathewson would start it off with her second goal of game to give the ‘Dores an 8-5 lead. Two minutes later, Kayla Peterson scored her first goal of the game to bring the score to 9-5 with 10:16 remaining. Jill Doherty would find the back of the net for the second time less than two minutes later and forced the Chanticleers to burn a timeout.
Coming out of the timeout, it was Doherty again to finish off her hat trick on the afternoon to give the ‘Dores an 11-5 lead. The Chanticleers would score the final two goals of the game to bring the final score to 11-7.
Offensively, the ‘Dores had goals from six different players on the afternoon. Doherty lead the ‘Dores with three goals while Mathewson, Blaze and Kayla Peterson added two goals each. Doherty won a team-high five draw controls and Blaze scooped up a team-high four ground balls in the win.
In the cage, Callahan Kent picked up her third win of the season making three saves in over 56 minutes of work. Lily Argyle would come in to finish the game and picked up one save of her own.
The Commodores will have just less than one week off before they are back on the field again. Next Saturday, the ‘Dores will hit the road again to begin conference play when they take on Villanova at 11 am CT.
