Mario Puzo once stated, "Luck and Strength go together. When you get lucky you have the strength to follow through; you also have to have the strength to wait for the luck." This could not be truer than in the Rhodes Women's Soccer upset of the #9 ranked Emory Eagles. By a stroke of luck, Emory scored an own goal in the 90th minute to give the Lynx the 1-0 win.
The past four seasons have seen tremendous games between the two teams. In 2005 Emory won by a score of 2-1 after coming from behind to tie and eventually win the game in overtime at Rhodes. In 2006 the two teams played 110 minutes of scoreless soccer to earn a draw. 2007 saw another Emory victory, this time in Atlanta, in which the Lynx scored an own goal to give the Eagles a 3-2.
This year's contest was very similar to the previous three. Both teams battled through 89 minutes of scoreless soccer in which Emory kept the Lynx out of their end.
Rhodes coach Bobby Lessentine remarked, "To be fair, Emory was in our end more that we were in theirs. I didn't feel their chances were all that dangerous but, with senior forward Jessie Cassidy out with an injury, we didn't even produce a scoring chance. However, we kept them at bay and were lucky to force them into a bad situation at the end of the game. Emory is a very good team and we were lucky today."
As the clock wound down, senior back Lizzie Wright cut off an Emory pass at midfield and served a ball into the penalty area where freshman forward Julia Clapper found herself alone with the Eagles goalkeeper. Clapper touched the bouncing ball over the keepers head where an Emory defender tried to clear the ball only to have it deflect of another recovering defender into the Eagles net.
Junior goalkeeper Becca Clarin earned her first solo shutout of the season behind the tough defense of seniors Katy Joyner, Kathleen Perniciaro and Wright and junior Colleen Callaghan.
Rhodes improves to 4-1-1 in 2008 and will open conference play against perennial SCAC powerhouse Trinity University at 4:00 pm on Friday, September 19, 2008 at Rhodes.
