Koalas pick up first conference win on the road at TWU

Road wins in the conference have been hard to come by for the Columbia College Soccer team in recent years, especially in Tennessee, but the Koalas made headway into reversing that trend with a 1-0 victory over Tennessee Wesleyan University on Saturday afternoon.

Games between the Koalas and the Bulldogs have always been tight affairs, and this one was no different as both teams battled hard for all ninety minutes on a warm afternoon. The Bulldogs controlled most of the possession and outshot the Koalas 18-11, but in terms of quality chances, the Koalas were just as dangerous.

It was one of those quality chances that made the difference in the game, and it was reigning conference freshman of the year Ruby Hallam who stole the show.  Senior Ashley Tanner controlled a long ball sent up to her, and turned before volleying a through ball to sophomore Hallam.  Hallam outpaced her defender and expertly controlled the bouncing ball before sliding it under the onrushing Bulldog keeper, to make it 1-0 Columbia with just 90 seconds remaining in the half.

The Bulldogs pressed hard in the second half but fashioned very few chances of real quality, instead driving high and wide from distance without ever really troubling Koala Junior goalkeeper Katherine Yahnke. Yahnke finished the game with 3 saves but also came up big collecting through balls and crosses from the Bulldog attackers while defenders and midfielders Alexis Cesario, Hannah Fox, Abbie Collier, Caitlin McDonald, Anna Seder, Alexa Leopold, and Peyton Lee combined to keep a very dangerous TWU attacking threat at bay.

With the win, Columbia moves to 5-4 overall, 1-2 in the AAC and returns home on Wednesday evening for a contest with Montreat College, looking to even their conference record to .500.