LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A season-saving win. A signature win. And a postseason-securing draw.
On Saturday afternoon at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium, the Bellarmine University women's soccer team completed a late-season surge to a berth in the ASUN Championship that was capped by a clutch scoreless stalemate with Austin Peay.
While Bellarmine (10-5-3, 4-5-1 ASUN) certainly would have preferred a win — and there certainly were elements of frustration after the Knights dominated the shot count but had nothing to show for it on the scoreboard — the bottom line was BU needed a victory or a tie against Austin Peay (0-11-7, 0-6-4) to assure itself of an ASUN postseason bid, and the Knights delivered.
As it turned out, Bellarmine would have still earned a trip to the ASUN Championship even if the Knights had lost. In a contest played simultaneously in Conway, Arkansas, North Alabama's 1-0 win over Central Arkansas meant BU would have been conference-tournament bound even in defeat.
Bellarmine didn't back into the bid in that fashion. Instead, the Knights put the finishing touch on a resilient stretch that saw them overcome a four-game losing streak by keeping hope alive with a 1-0 win at North Alabama, following with a dazzling 2-1 home victory over then-ASUN-unbeaten Lipscomb and gritting out a productive draw with Austin Peay.
The frustrating aspects of the latter result start with Bellarmine's resounding 23-6 advantage in shots over Austin Peay, including 9-2 on frame, and the Knights' lopsided 13-6 edge in corner kicks. Within those chances, freshman midfielder
Nora Dimmitt had a shot carom off the right post in the first half, and redshirt senior midfielder
Sidney Rigsby had a header deflect off the right post in the second half.
Bellarmine's defense didn't allow Austin Peay many openings en route to the Knights' seventh shutout of the season. BU bottled up the Governors' attack, surrendering only the six shots, and redshirt freshman goalkeeper
Anna Jenkins collected the two attempts that were on frame.
Gold Division four-seed Bellarmine will play at Graphite Division champion and Graphite top seed FGCU on Thursday in the ASUN Championship quarterfinals.
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