No. 11 Women’s Soccer falls in OAC Tournament Semifinals to John Carroll, 1-0

By: Andrew Korba

ADA — The No. 11 Ohio Northern women's soccer lost a tough 1-0 match to John Carroll in the semifinal round of the OAC Tournament on Thursday afternoon at the ONU Soccer Field.

The Polar Bears move to 15-2-2 overall, while John Carroll is now 14-7-0 overall. The fourth-seeded Blue Streaks will play No. 3 seed Capital on Saturday for the OAC Tournament Championship.

The first half was a scoreless, defensive struggle as neither team were able to find many scoring chances.

John Carroll has a chance in the eighth minute when sophomore Genny Georgern fired a shot but a diving save was made by ONU junior goalie Erin Waehner.

The Blue Streaks took the lead in the 78th minute when sophomore Carolyn Vespoli hit a free kick that was headed in by senior Colleen Harmon to give JCU a 1-0 lead.

The Polar Bears had a few chances to respond in the closing minutes but were unsuccessful.

Sophomore Fran Federle took a cross from senior Alyssa Merrick but the shot went high in the 81st minute.

In the 86th minute, Northern had two corner kicks bounce around the goalie box but were cleared out the Blue Streaks.

The best chance for the Polar Bears came in the 88th minute when Merrick fired a shot past the goalie but the John Carroll defense cleared it just before it crossed the goal line.

"This is a tough loss," said head coach Mark Batman. "John Carroll is tough and played well today. Now we will wait and see what happens from here."

Ohio Northern will now have to wait until the NCAA Division III Women's Soccer selection show on Monday at 1:30 p.m. to see if the team will be admitted into the national tournament.

Stay tuned to ONUSports.com for updates.