EVANSVILLE, Ind.--The Bellarmine University women's soccer team--no stranger to close games this season--pulled out a 1-0 victory over the University of Southern Indiana this afternoon in the opening round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship Tournament.

The Knights got a first half goal from Chelsea McCarty at the 36:05 mark and made that 1-0 score stand up to defeat the Screaming Eagles and advance to the GLVC semifinals, where they will face the No. 1-seeded Norse of Northern Kentucky.

"It was sort of the tale of two halves," said Bellarmine Coach Jonathan Velotta.  "We started great and created a lot of chances for ourselves in the first half.  We definitely deserved to be up at halftime. Then, USI came out and played really well to open the second half," Velotta added.

Bellarmine, playing as the No. 5 seed, outshot the 4th-seeded Screaming Eagles 22-11 for the game, but held just a 9-8 shot advantage in the second half. 

"Overall we played very well defensively," Velotta said.  "Amy (Kunowski) had a couple of big saves and Kacie (Gamm) and the entire back line played very well." Kunowski ended with seven saves on the afternoon.

The victory--the Knights' fifth 1-0 win on the season, ups their season record to 11-4-2.  The Screaming Eagles end their season at 12-6-1.

Bellarmine now travels to Northern Kentucky on Friday to take on the Norse on their home field.  The Norse, winners of 10 in a row and ranked No. 8 nationally, narrowly defeated the Knights 1-0 in their Sept. 10 meeting at Bellarmine.  The other semifinal pits the second-seeded Wisconsin-Parkside Rangers against the third-seeded Quincy Hawks.

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