For the ETSU women’s soccer team overtime has been the story of the year.
Friday night at Liberty Bell Field the Bucs played and battled Appalachian State to a 0-0 tie. Senior Jennifer Fields was honored before the start of the game for her four years of dedication to the ETSU soccer program. In her career at ETSU she started 69 games and she has been the stronghold of the defense all season.
Fields also scored six goals in her ETSU career. Her teammates rallied behind her and wanted Fields to end her career at Liberty Bell Field on a good note.
“The girls played this one for Jen,” said ETSU coach Heather Henson. “It was an emotional night for everyone.”
Last Sunday, Fields went down against Davidson with an ankle injury, but she would come back at the end of the game to help her team. In her final home game at ETSU a sore ankle was the last thing on her mind.
“Jen is a competitor, even with her injury she played all 110 minutes,” Henson said.
The Bucs were pressuring the Mountaineer defense inside the last five minutes of regulation, but as one of the players told coach Henson it was like there was “a wall in front of the goal.” On at least two occasions players other than the goalie made diving saves for Appy.
“I told the team to keep after it and eventually we will get a goal, we didn’t get frustrated and we never quit,” Henson said of her team’s late charge.
ETSU goalie Christine Parks made 12 saves and toward the end of the game she really felt the heat of the ASU attack. The Mountaineers were firing shots left and right and Parks denied all of them. Her record is now 3-4-3 on the year.
The rain seemed to play a factor in the game because that made for more fouls called by the officials. The ground was wet from the downpour earlier in the day, and it was hard for players from either team to keep their footing.
The team’s goal now is to make the Southern Conference Tournament. With a 2-4-4 record in the conference ETSU (5-7-4) must win at Furman and then they have to wait and see how Elon, Western Carolina and Wofford do in their games. ETSU is 1-1-1 against those three teams, with the win coming against Wofford, the loss to Elon and the tie to Western. Furman is tied for second in the conference and it is a must-win game for ETSU.
“Furman always has a good program,” Henson said. “All we can do is win our game and then see what happens.”
“We could have used a win, but a tie keeps us in the hunt.”

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