FIU Women’s Soccer Holds Off JSU Comeback, Punches Ticket to C-USA Tournament

MIAMI, FL – On a hot Sunday morning, the FIU Women’s Soccer team did their job and took down the Jacksonville State Gamecocks by a score of 3-2.

With the win, the Panthers have clinched a spot in the upcoming Conference-USA tournament, and have ended a decade-long drought of the team not making the postseason.

In the 7th minute of the game, Catherine Rapp put the Panthers on the board with a goal in the bottom left of the goal post, giving FIU a 1-0 lea that they’d hold on to for a while.

Following the goal, there was a lot of back and forth between both teams, but no goals or even shots were had. Specifically, JSU didn’t have a single shot on the day except for the very end.

In the 73rd minute of play, a JSU foul inside the box set up Kim Schneider forma penalty kick. This was the Panthers’ second penalty of the game. Nikole Solis, who attempted the first one, missed hitting it way off to the left side of the goal. This time around, Schneider drilled it in and gave FIU a 2-0 lead.

Throughout the game, JSU dominated time of possession and held on to the ball a lot. That would end up working out as in the 78th minute, Camryn Davis scored the first goal of the afternoon for the Gamecocks. They now trailed by just a single goal.

Minutes later, the Gamecocks tied the game up at two apiece thanks to Tia Nagle who was able to score off of a corner kick which she softly kicked in.

With not much time left on the clock, Jacksonville State tied the game and set themselves up to end the game with each team earning a single point.

But just seconds later, sophomore Barbra Garcia broke loose and scored the first collegiate goal of her career. That gave the Panthers a 3-2 lead. FIU’s defense then did just enough to limit JSU and walk away with a hard-earned win.

In total, the Panthers racked up nine shots, six corner kicks, and 16 fouls. No saves were recorded, as all two of JSU’s shots on goal fell in.

One negative about the match for FIU, however, was that there were multiple Panther injuries, most notably to goalie Ithaisa Vinoly and Rapp.

Regardless, the Panthers improve their record to 8-3-4 with the postseason on the horizon. They’ll play their final home game of the season on Sunday, October 22nd at 11am against Louisiana Tech.