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Frosh goal sends Pioneers to championship
Freshman forward Jessy Battelli scored the game-winning goal in the 84th minute, giving top-seeded Denver a 1-0 victory over No. 4 seeded Florida International in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament Semifinals on Thursday afternoon.
The victory ties the DU team record for most wins in a season and also sends No. 15 Denver (19-2-0) to the SBC Tournament championship game.
“FIU outplayed us today. They played extremely well, so we were fortunate to get the win,” head coach Jeff Hooker said. “Good teams have to hang in and survive when they’re being outplayed, and that’s what we did today. We stayed in it and then got a very good goal off a corner kick.”
The Golden Panthers (11-9-1) came out with a solid game plan and out-shot Denver 12-4 in the game, including a 10-1 advantage in the second half, and held DU to just one shot on goal in the game.
That one shot was all the Pioneers needed, however. Freshman midfielder Nicholette DiGiacomo took a corner kick and served a perfect ball to Battelli, who snapped a header past the FIU goalkeeper. DiGiacomo now has 15 assists in 2010, setting a new DU single-season record.
Sophomore goalkeeper Lara Campbell made three saves for her eighth individual shutout of the season and Denver’s 11th overall shutout.
The Pioneers will look for their fifth-straight SBC Tournament title – and their eighth in the past 10 years – when they take on the winner of Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee. The championship game will be played in Bowling Green, Ky., on Saturday at noon.
NOTES: The Pioneers’ 19th victory tied the team record, which was set in 2008 when DU went 19-3-2…freshman forward DiGiacomo recorded her 15th assist, which broke Jamie Norwood’s team record (14) set in 2002. DiGiacomo entered the tournament ranked second in the nation in assists, trailing Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s Silvia Fuentes by just one…The Pioneers won the Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. FIU (2000) and North Texas (2004 and 2005) are the only other teams to claim the SBC title since Denver joined the conference.
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