ATLANTA - Old Dominion women’s soccer defeated Georgia State, 1-0 in Atlanta at the GSU Soccer Complex on Sunday night. With the win, ODU earned Co-Regular Season Sun Belt Champion and the second seed at the upcoming SBC Championships in Foley, Alabama.
The last time Old Dominion was named a regular season conference champion was in 2021 in Conference USA with a 6-1-1 C-USA record. It is the first time the Monarchs have won the Sun Belt Regular Season Championship Old Dominion first year head coach Will Roberts won the SBC Regular Season Conference Championship last season with ULM and has now gone back-to-back.
“I’m so proud of the group tonight! Georgia State is 8-0 at home and for good reason,” said Roberts. “But the team knew going into the game that a championship was on the line for us and they pushed through to achieve that goal. We set goals all season, and it’s nice to win the Sun Belt Regular Season Championship for the first time in program history. All our focus shifts to Foley, but we need to enjoy this moment. Championships are difficult to win at this level and we’re happy to bring one back to Old Dominion!!”
Old Dominion (9-6-2, 7-1-2 SBC) scored the game’s opening goal in the 16th minute. Madison Telmer picked the ball cleanly from a GSU (10-5-3, 5-3-2 SBC) midfielder and slid a through ball onto the path of Riley Mullen.
Mullen darted past her defender and had a one-on-one chance against the Panthers goalkeeper, Alondra Irairte. The Staten Island, New York native shot across her body with her right foot into the bottom left hand corner to take a 1-0 lead. The game-winning goal was the fourth goal Mullen scored this season and tied her up with teammate Ashley Economopoulos for a team high 11 points.
The Monarchs fired off 10 shots in the opening 45 with three attempts on target. The Silver and Blue held the Panthers to three shots but zero shots were on target. Economopoulos almost scored the opening goal in the second minute. She noticed Irairte off her goal line and lobbed the keeper from outside the box. But, Irairte was able to rush back and make the stop.
Out of the nine shots that were taken in the second half, ODU recorded seven. Georgia State's first shot of the final half came in the 56th minute from Aaliyah Faddoul but her shot was blocked away by an ODU defender. Their final attempt came in the 73rd minute and it was also blocked away by an ODU defender.
Old Dominion finished the game with 17 shots and six shots on goal. ODU’s top notch defense held the Panthers to zero shots on goal in the 90 minutes and kept its ninth clean sheet of the season.
Telmer led the Monarchs with three shots while Economopoulos had a team high two shots on target. Laura Klebek and Libby Holme both had two shots with one on target. Mullen only took one shot tonight and it was enough to beat the Panthers.
Goodrich did not have to make a single save in the 90 minutes of action and improved her record in goal to 8-5-2. She kept her eighth shutout of the season tonight. GSU’s Iriarte made four saves in 90 minutes and conceded one goal.
UP NEXT:
Old Dominion secured the second seed at the Sun Belt Championships held in Foley, Alabama on November 9-14 in Foley, Alabama at the Foley Sports Tourism Complex. More information to come.