“Really happy for our senior class,” said ODU Head Coach Will Roberts. “I’m really proud of the way they showed up for each other to get the job done! We did what we needed to do in the second half to secure three points. We now turn our focus to finishing the conference regular season strong.”
Old Dominion (8-6-2, 6-1-2 SBC) honored 11 seniors for senior day prior to the start of the match. ODU now has 20 conference points with the win today. Around the Sun Belt, Georgia State drew JMU, 1-1 to fall to fourth in the conference behind App State who defeated Marshall, 1-0 today. James Madison still sits atop the conference with 22 points, but the Monarchs (20) are now in striking distance to capture the Sun Belt regular season championship going into the final game of the season.
The Monarchs scored a minute into the second half to take a 1-0 lead. Ashley Economopoulos found the back of the net from assists by Sydney Somers and Mia Serna. Serna found Somers down the left wing and the defender from Littleton, Colorado slid a pass across the face of goal and found Economopoulos for a tap-in goal.
ODU got an insurance goal 11 minutes later from Dylan McEntarfer to go up 2-0. Ally Richardson whipped in a cross from a corner kick, the ball got deflected by a CCU (8-7-3, 2-5-2 SBC) defender and fell to the second year defender from Virginia Beach. McEntarfer then volleyed the ball and generated enough power to beat CCU’s goalkeeper Aris Lamanna from just inside the box.
ODU outshot the Chants, 6-4 in the first half and 13-7 in the second half to have a +8-shot advantage (19-11) for the entire 90 minutes and ODU held a +2-corner kick advantage.
McEntarfer, Libby Holmes, Ashlynn Kulha, Ally Richardson, and Madison Telmer all played the entire 90 minute match. Riley Mullen finished with a team-high five shots followed by Economopoulos, McEntarfer, and Telmer with three each. Economopoulos scored her fifth goal of the season and McEntarfer scored her second. Econonopoulos now ranks first on ODU with 11 points from five goals and one assist.
Ellie Goodrich and Emily Earles both split time in goal for the Silver and Blue. Goodrich started the game and made one save while Earles made three in the second half. ODU recorded its ninth clean sheet of the season.
UP NEXT:
Old Dominion heads to Atlanta to play Georgia State on Sunday, November 1 at 5 p.m. The Monarchs and the Panthers are separated by three conference points.