Lady Vols eliminate Clemson

One-point wins in the final seconds seem to be all the rage on the University of Tennessee campus.

Hours after the Tennessee football team defeated Vanderbilt 25-24, the Lady Vols soccer team played to a 1-0 double-overtime victory, eliminating the Clemson Tigers in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday at Regal Stadium.

"I think today was a great battle," said UT coach Angela Kell, whose team improved to 10-0-1 in NCAA tournament games in Knoxville and advanced to its fifth Sweet 16. "Obviously I'm very grateful for the win, but I know how difficult it is to be on Clemson's side, so I would like to congratulate them on a great game and a fantastic season."

Tennessee will play second-seeded Portland in the third round. The match is tentatively scheduled for Saturday in Portland, Ore.

UT and Clemson were scoreless through regulation and the first 10-minute overtime. Fewer than four minutes into the second extra period, junior forward Kylee Rossi scored.

She was set up by sophomore midfielder Mick Imgram, who placed the ball just over the head of Clemson defender Molly Johnson. Rossi raced past the defender, and from 15 yards out, crossed goalkeeper Ashley Phillips, putting the ball into the upper corner of the net.

For Rossi, the play panned out in a much simpler fashion.

"I wanted to score, so I just put it in," Rossi said.

Rossi scored her 30th career goal, moving her into the program's top spot. Even though she and Kelly were caught off guard by the achievement, Rossi was quick to deflect credit to everyone.

"That's a great honor, but I have to credit my whole team - I can't do it without them," Rossi said. "I'm not going to be able to score if they don't get me the ball, and I try to do the same thing for them. I think we all work so well together."

For the 103 minutes before Rossi's goal, a slew of shots were unleashed. The Lady Vols fired 20 shots, but only nine were on target.

"That number can never be a frustration for a coach. As long as we're creating opportunities, then you have an opportunity to be successful," Kelly said. "Against a well-organized team it was going to take a lot of opportunities in order for us to get just one as you saw today."

Clemson, which was coming off a four-goal second-half performance against Charlotte on Friday, cranked off 12 shots but could not find similar success against the Lady Vols.

"We created a lot of great chances on Friday night, but I think Tennessee's defense is better," Clemson coach Todd Bramble said. "I don't know if the emotions of Friday night's win took its toll, but we didn't seem to have as much life and energy as Tennessee did today."

Kelly echoed Bramble's comments on the defense, saying it was the unit's best performance of the season. Teamed with junior goalkeeper Jaimel Johnson, the back line provided Tennessee's 11th shutout of the season and sixth in its last six home wins.

"As a team, every person stepped on the field and worked to contribute," Johnson said. "So I don't really give myself the shutout. It's more of a team shutout because without the four players playing defense in front of me, we probably wouldn't have had that shutout."

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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