BOILING SPRINGS, N.C.-Tara Woelfel's goal in the 69th minute lifted the Gardner-Webb women's soccer team to a 3-2 victory in the regular-season finale on Tuesday evening at Greene-Harbison Stadium.
Tuesday's victory was the 200th career win for Gardner-Webb head women's soccer coach Mike Varga.
"This was definitely a bitter sweet night.The team was very disappointed by the earlier result and knowing that we didn't have a chance to make the tournament, but they played hard and decided that we were going to send our seniors out on a positive note," commented Varga. "It was a sloppy game from start to finish with the conditions the way they were, but we created a lot of opportunities and scored enough to get the result."
Gardner-Webb ends the season with a 6-9-4 overall record and 3-5-2 in the Big South Conference, while UNC Asheville falls to 11-8 and 4-6 in league play. UNCA advances to the Big South tournament quarterfinals, which will be played on Friday.
Both sides did not let the sub-par conditions effect the play, as UNCA and GWU combined for 30 shots and 12 corner kicks. Woelfel and Brandi Arey led the way for the Runnin' Bulldogs with three shots each, while Courtney Naber took a game-high four attempts to lead the Bulldogs.
Keely Brown faced seven shots in the match, stopping five attempts that came her way to earn her fifth victory of the season, while Lily Brown made seven saves in defeat for Asheville.
Gardner-Webb jumped out to a 1-0 lead just seven minutes into the game as Woelfel gave a pass to Shelby Hooe, who broke sprinted past the Asheville defense put a shot past Brown for the game's first goal.
Paige Trent tied the game at one, scoring her seventh goal of the season in the 28th minute on a curling shot from just outside the 18-yard box.
Both sides remained tied as halftime inched closer, but in the 44th minute Arey made a quick turn inside the box and fired a shot into the goal to give the Dogs a 2-1 lead heading into halftime.
Courtney Naber tied the game at two on a penalty kick goal in the 60th minute, but nine minutes later Hooe passed the ball to Woelfel, who made a quick turn with the ball and fired a shot into the upper right hand corner for the game-winning goal.
Gardner-Webb continued to hold the lead and would go on for the 3-2 victory in the regular-season finale.
Tuesday's match was the final match for GWU's nine seniors; Tara Woelfel, Ashley Carmean, Sam Gutierrez, Whitley Bowman, Tori James, Shelby Hooe, Brooke Kelly, and Marian Marr as well as team manager Mary Toohey.
