Jacksonville, Fla. – The North Florida women's soccer team dropped their final regular season matchup to crosstown rival Jacksonville, 3-0, in the annual installment of the River City Rumble Friday night in front of a record crowd of 1,683 at Hodges Stadium.
The Ospreys (5-11-1, 3-3-1 A-Sun) finish fourth in the final A-Sun standings and will host Northern Kentucky next weekend in the first round of the A-Sun tournament. The day and time of the match will be finalized on Monday, Oct. 27.
"That was a tough one tonight. JU is a good team and played a great game and finished their opportunities," said head coach
Robin Confer. "I thought we created some dangerous chances throughout the game to try and get back into it and we just couldn't put one away."
The Dolphins (10-7-1, 4-3-0 A-Sun) finish third in the final standings and will host Kennesaw State in their first round matchup.
Jacksonville started fast and put their first goal of the match up in the fifth minute when Joelle D'Entremont found Sope Akindoju in the box with a left footed cross. Akindoju then fired to the middle of the net for the 1-0 lead.
The Ospreys defense held strong through the first half but relinquished the second goal of the night in the 50
th minute, D'Entremont took a Lindsey Forrest pass into the box and found the middle of the net for the 2-0 advantage.
Akindoju netted her second goal of the match and the final goal for the Dolphins in the 69
th minute, when she fielded a deflection and played it into the box and beat senior goalkeeper
Megan Dorsey in the one-on-one opportunity.
The Ospreys had some great chances to find the net but just couldn't seem to finish. Freshman
Kayla Gray had a great opportunity in the 47
th minute with a one-on-one opportunity played in by freshman
Jess Kinlaw, but she trickled the shot across the goal and wide right. Gray also had an opportunity in the 58
th minute from a senior
Jill Holdsworth corner, but she put the shot just over the crossbar.
Their best opportunity came in the 52
nd minute, when sophomore
Alexis Bredeau played into the box but the shot was blocked by Dolphins keeper Sarah Sierra,
Amanda Fischler fielded the ball in a goal box scramble but pushed the ball just over the crossbar.
Junior
Lanie Keating almost found her second goal of the season off of a free kick in the 57
th minute, but Sierra made a great play to punch the ball away and to the right of the goal.
"The positives are that we are in the A-Sun tournament and we get to play at home," added Confer. "It's time now to rest and start preparing for a tough NKU team."
The Dolphins held the final shot advantage 19-12 and the on-goal advantage by a margin of 10-3. Dorsey led the saves count 7-3 and is currently two saves away from breaking her own single-season saves record of 94.
For the latest news and updates on the UNF Women's Soccer team, follow @OspreyWSOC on Twitter.
