GEORGETOWN, Ky. - With only days left in the season, the Talladega College women's soccer team is holding onto hope for a postseason berth in the Continental Athletic Conference. The Tornadoes currently sit fourth in the CAC standings, but to stay in that spot, they will need some help after a defeat at the hands of Georgetown College (Ky.) on Friday evening.
The Tigers (5-6-3) tallied twice and kept the Tornadoes (4-8-1) off the scoresheet as they claimed the 2-0 win at Toyota Stadium in Georgetown.
The loss leaves the Tornadoes postseason fate in the hands of the Florida College Falcons. The Tornadoes and Falcons are tied on winning percentage in the CAC standings, but the Falcons have one more match to play. The Falcons will battle Florida National University on Monday morning at 11 a.m. eastern, and the Tornadoes will have a keen eye on that match. The field for the CAC Championship will be announced next week.
Regardless, head coach Junior Noel considers this season to have been a success.
"In closing out our regular season, I'm grateful and thankful for these kids and for the way they represented themselves and Talladega College," Noel stated. "From where we were last year and the complete and positive turnaround, I heap all the praise on the kids I serve. No one would have dreamed that at this point that any of the teams would be in post-season contention and to go down to the last game of the season with both teams in the conversation is remarkable, indeed. Both teams faced tremendous adversity throughout the season (lost of parents, critical illness, and serious injury, to name a few), but they never gave up and kept getting better for it."
About the women's team, specifically, Noel said, "Much kudos should be given to our backbone on defense, starting with our team captain
Natalie Nedd, who many times stood on her head defensive and kept us in games. I must mention Freshman
Reba Stott, who performed beyond her years. Offensively,
Annalisa Vincent has been our leader with 9 goals, although she missed a big chunk of the season with illness. Freshman
Cycoiah Wattley needs mentioning as well as she had grown tremendously over the season. As a team, they group started off with a lot of skepticism, but grew as a family as the season progressed."
The Tornadoes will await their postseason fate with the hope that they might get another chance to take the field.
