MACON, Ga. – The Kennesaw State women’s soccer team dropped a hard-fought Atlantic Sun Conference road match to Mercer on Friday night by a score of 1-0 at Bear Field.

The win improves the Bears to 8-6-1 (2-4-1 A-Sun) on the year, while the loss drops the Owls to 6-8-1 (2-5-0 A-Sun) for the season.

Mercer opened the scoring in the 31st minute as freshman Washida Blackman gave the Bears the lead scoring on a header off a free kick. Blackman snuck behind a KSU defender and headed the ball past Kennesaw State goalkeeper Melissa Hutto on the near post to give MU the 1-0 lead.

The Kennesaw State defense faced another stiff test right around the 50th minute as Mercer had four straight corner kicks to try to add to their lead, but the Black and Gold held strong as they  successfully defended all four corners to keep it a 1-0 game.

The Bears threatened again in the 59th minute as senior Olivia Tucker blasted a shot from the top of the box that Hutto made an excellent save on deflecting the ball just wide to keep it a one goal deficit. 

KSU nearly tied the game in the 68th minute as redshirt-freshman Katrina Frost hit a free kick from 20 yards out that sailed just over the crossbar. 

The Black and Gold’s final opportunity to tie the match came in the 89th minute as they had three consecutive corner kicks. Mercer defended the first two and on the last corner senior Brittany Vining had a header attempt that was saved by a Mercer defender on the far post as the Bears held off the Owls for the 1-0 win.

"It was a close, hard-fought game," head coach Rob King said. "We defended well but weren't able to posses and create enough good chances to win the game."

MU outshot the Owls 16-6 in the game, and the Bears also held a 7-4 edge in corner kicks. The game was very physical as it always is between the two in-state rivals as there were 32 combined fouls in the match and three yellow cards.

Kennesaw State will now have a week off before it will hit the road to take on East Tennessee State on Friday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m.

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