Saturday, October 22, 2011

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The FGCU women’s soccer team clinched at least a share of the 2011 Atlantic Sun Conference regular season championship Friday night in Nashville. A goal in the 63rd minute from senior Olivia Elias (Coral Springs, Fla./American Heritage-Delray HS), lifted the Eagles to a 1-0 shutout of Lipscomb, and improved the Green and Blue to a perfect 8-0 in Friday night games.

The Eagles earned their ninth straight shutout and 11th shutout of the year to improve to 12-3-2 overall and 7-0-1 in the A-Sun. FGCU has an unbeaten streak of 21 games (18-0-3) in conference action that dates back to the end of the 2009 campaign.

With a victory or tie against Belmont on Sunday the Green and Blue can clinch their second straight A-Sun regular season championship and the No. 1 seed in their first-ever Atlantic Sun Tournament appearance as a result of being the No. 1 seed, FGCU would receive a bye in the quarterfinal round and play host to the A-Sun semifinals and championship game.

FGCU scored the game-winning goal in the 63rd minute, when senior Danielle Faller (Elizabeth, Pa./Elizabeth Area HS) made a pass to teammate Gina Petracco (Fort Myers, Fla./Bishop Verot HS) who played a nice through ball to Elias who buried the game-winner. It was Elias’s sixth goal of the season and team-leading third game-winning goal.