The top-seeded Georgia Gwinnett College women's soccer team won its third consecutive Continental Athletic Conference championship and eighth conference title in the last nine seasons with a 4-2 victory over No. 2 seed Bellevue University (Nebraska) in Tuesday evening's tournament championship match at the Grizzly Soccer Complex. The team has qualified for the NAIA national tournament.
"The term Conference Champions has a nice sound to it," said Head Coach
Dr. Mike Giuliano. "I did everything I could today to keep the players calm by cracking jokes and showing fun videos from throughout the year, because you know there were nerves when a lot is at stake."
The Grizzlies (10-5-5) scored the match's first four goals before Bellevue (12-3-2) came back with two late second-half tallies to make things interesting.
GGC capitalized on a mistake by Bellevue's goalkeeper to take an early 1-0 lead as freshman
Hannah Lorenz scored in the 12th minute.
Then both teams were evenly matched for the next 20 minutes before junior
Jade Perrin scored a fantastic 23-yard free kick into the upper right corner in the 33rd minute of the match.
"I saw that the right side was pretty open, so I tried to curve it. I actually thought it was going to miss wide, but then my teammates were celebrating. Going up 2-0 was huge and we played a good first half," said Perrin.
Giuliano added, "It was a perfect play. Our leadership team came up to me and proposed that Jade start taking some free kicks from that distance. She struck it as perfect as you could."
The second half started with high energy play. Bellevue almost scored when forward Mia Hurt hit the crossbar. GGC junior goalkeeper
Rirei Sasaki followed with an excellent save on the rebound to keep the shutout on the scoreboard.
In the 57th minute, the tournament hosts took a 3-0 advantage when a long pass from sophomore
Kathrine Lindenberg and a header by sophomore
Nova Eskelinen gave senior
Natalie Maguire the opportunity of weaving around the goalkeeper for a goal.
Four minutes later, Perrin intercepted a pass in the attacking zone, dribbled into the box and found Lorenz to net her second goal of the match and team-leading eighth tally.
Bellevue fought back with the two late goals, one by Adi Kasel in the 74th minute and another own goal in the 83rd minute.
Both teams recorded 11 shots, with Sasaki making four saves.
This marked the fifth consecutive conference championship match between GGC and Bellevue.
The Grizzlies will find out its NAIA postseason destination when the national tournament's 40-team field is announced on Friday, November 14, at 7 p.m.
Coach's Corner
"What a first half that we played. It was beautiful soccer and we were composed. I was very impressed with our play, and we held on at the end. Getting the first goal that early in the contest makes you think that we were the better team," said Head Coach
Dr. Mike Giuliano.
Turning Point
Georgia Gwinnett College took charge of the championship match with its play late in the first half. Junior
Jade Perrin successfully placed a 23-yard free kick into the upper right corner of the goal in the 33rd minute to give the team a 2-0 lead, which they built upon early in the second half.
Goals
11' –
Hannah Lorenz, GGC (Unassisted)
33' –
Jade Perrin, GGC (Unassisted)
57' –
Natalie Maguire, GGC (
Nova Eskelinen and
Kathrine Lindenberg)
60' –
Hannah Lorenz, GGC (
Jade Perrin)
74' – Adi Kasel, BU (Katrina Avila)
83' – Own Goal, BU (Unassisted)
Inside The Numbers
- Both teams recorded 11 total shots, with GGC holding a 7-6 edge in shots on goal
- Freshman Hannah Lorenz scored two goals to increase her team lead to eight tallies on the season
- Both teams attempted two corner kicks across the 90 minutes of action
- Junior goalkeeper Rirei Sasaki tallied four saves, including a highlight stop on a rebound early in the second half
News & Notes
- Georgia Gwinnett improves to 10-5-5 this fall; Bellevue drops to 12-3-2 in 2025
- The Grizzlies were ranked No. 24 in the latest NAIA Top 25 poll
- GGC stood as the No. 1 seed in the postseason tournament; Bellevue was the No. 2 seed
- Tuesday's match marked the fifth consecutive conference final between Georgia Gwinnett College and Bellevue
Up Next
Georgia Gwinnett College will find out its postseason selection as the CAC's automatic qualifier during the NAIA Selection Show on Friday, November 14, at 7 p.m.
