Box Score By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
 
HATTIESBURG – The William Carey University women didn't look much like the No. 1 team in the nation in the first half of its NAIA National Tournament playoff game against Xavier (La.).
 
But the second half was more like what the Crusaders have become used to. Carey put in a pair of goals in a three-minute span of the second half, and that was enough for a 2-0 triumph Saturday afternoon at Danny Owens Field.
 
The victory sent WCU (21-0-0) to the Round of 16 at the Women's National Tournament at Foley, Ala. The Gold Nuggets completed their season 13-6.
 
"We saw them on Thursday (in a 3-2 first-round win over Tennessee Wesleyan), and saw how good they were on the ball," said Crusader coach Danny Owens.
 
"We weren't sure how they were going to play, but they came out and played us straight-up, and gave us all we could handle."
 
Indeed, Xavier showed no interest in backing away from the challenge of playing the best team in NAIA. The Gold Nuggets put pressure on the Carey back line throughout the game, and the Crusaders proved up for the challenge.
 
"I think we started out a little slow in the first half," said defender Chloe Strickland, a senior from Greene County. "We didn't play as intense and as fast as we needed to. Our coach gave us a good talking-to at halftime and we picked it up in the second half."
 
Strickland, the Southern States Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year, made the biggest play of the first half, midway through the period, kicking away a potential shot with Crusader goalkeeper Marlen Kelm alone in an exposed position.
 
"I was reading it, and I said in my head, 'I'm getting this ball.'," Strickland said. "'There's no way she's shooting this ball.' I made it happen."
 
Strickland keyed a strong effort from the defenders from her usual position at center back, and even got involved in the offense, with two shots in the game.
 
"She's Defensive Player of the Year for a reason," said Owens. "She sees the game a lot better than she ever has, she's very athletic, she's a true leader on the team, and on the field, she just seems to be there to pick up the pieces."
 
Carey's best scoring chance in the first half came early, when junior Mariangela Jimenez headed a shot on goal in the fourth minute of play that Xavier keeper Theresa Wiesiolek was able to save without much trouble.
 
Sophomore Karen Vikau also had a good chance in the 33rd minute, and 10 minutes later senior Fernanda Pena Nieto had a good chance, but was denied.
 
Xavier's best chance to score came with 31 seconds left in the period, when Britni Belmonte blasted a free kick from 25 yards out that Kelm had to leap high to knock away. Although they only had 10 shots total, the Gold Nuggets put seven of them on goal.
 
"Our team is really good at touches, and we have a lot of good players," said senior Maria Azarias. "But when we don't score in the first five to 10 minutes, we get a little frustrated, because we're so good, and we know we
 
"So we just need to keep our heads up and keep playing like we know we can, because if we keep playing like that we know we can go all the way."
 
The Crusaders played without senior Julia Herbst, who is second on the team with 51 points (17 goals, 18 assists). Herbst suffered a strained oblique muscle last week in the semifinals of the SSAC Tournament.
 
Owens said Herbst should be ready to return for the national tournament.
 
"We're just resting her and hoping we can get her through the next week," said Owens. "She wasn't ready to go today, so we'll see how she does over the next week.
 
"She's got double-digit goals, and she's a big focal point to how we play. So any time you lose a player of that quality, it hurts. But the last two games we've played without her, and I thought the girls have stepped up really well."
 
Things were very different in the second half. Carey got three good looks in the first three minutes of the half, after starting the period with considerably more purpose.
 
Just 30 seconds into the half, Azarias bounced a shot off the left post, two minutes later Jimenez put a shot on goal and Azarias again had a shot off a free kick that Wiesiolek managed to get a hand on.
 
"We knew we were the better team," said junior Christina Salmon. "When we got back in the locker room, we talked things over and we came back out and did what we had to do."
 
Belmonte had a shot on goal in the 51st minute off a free kick that resulted in one of just two corner kicks for the Gold Nuggets. But nothing came of the opportunity.
 
The Crusaders finally broke through when Salmon sent a good ball across the field that hit Azarias in stride, and she bombed one into the upper right corner of the net from 25 yards out that Wiesiolek had no chance to save.''
 
"The defender cued the ball, and I was there ready to go," said Azarias. "I told myself I was going to take this girl on and kick it where no one could get it, and it went there."
 
The goal at 53:44 as all the scoring Carey would need, but three minutes later the Crusaders got some insurance, when Salmon got open in front of the net and pushed in a point-blank shot off a pass from Vilau.
 
That made it 2-0 at 56:22, and the Crusaders coasted to the finish. Azarias finished the game with six shots, four on goal, and Jimenez had five shots, two on net. Salmon only had the one shot, but it gave her the team lead with 21 goals for the year.
 
"That's what this team is about," said Salmon. "We don't struggle under pressure, we know what type of team we are. And even under pressure, we come out and deliver."
 
Wiesiolek kept the Crusaders from adding to their margin with a pair of back-to-back saves in the 63 minute on shots by Azarias and sophomore Virginia Mesa.
 
Top-seeded Carey will open third-round play in the NAIA Women's National Championship at the Foley Sports Tourism Championship Stadium on Nov. 27 against Keiser (Fla.), which knocked out No. 16 College of Idaho 1-0 on Saturday.
 
"We get everybody's A-game throughout the year," Owens said. "Seedings don't matter, records don't matter, it's just you've got to play that first game, survive and move on."