Greenville, S.C. – Nieva Gaither scored a career-high two goals while
Kyndal Anderson netted the game-winner to lead the Furman women's soccer team from two goals down to win, 3-2, in Southern Conference action over the VMI Keydets, Friday evening at Stone Stadium.
Furman improves to 7-5-1 on the season and 3-3 in SoCon play, while VMI falls to 3-12-1 overall and 0-5-1 in the conference.
The Keydets scored twice within the game's opening 12 minutes to hold an early 2-0 lead. Riley Flanagan recorded a goal less than two minutes into the contest and later assisted on Whitney Edwards-Robinson's goal during the 12
th minute.
VMI went into halftime holding a 2-0 advantage over the Paladins.
Furman outshot the Keydets 23-2 in the second half and closed out the contest scoring three times over the final 21 minutes.
Gaither got the Paladins on the board at the end of 70
th minute with
Jasmine Greene receiving the assist, cutting the deficit to 2-1. Greene got possession on the far side of the field after receiving a pass from Anderson and then beat a VMI defender. Greene took one dribble and laid a cross back into the 18-yard box allowing Gaither to score on a header inside the left post from 11 yards away.
Gaither equalized less than three minutes later unassisted, tying the game at 2-2 on her fourth goal of the season. Anderson left a cross near side in front of Furman's bench back to Gaither in the middle of the field. Gaither went past one Keydet defender and scored left side at the top of the 18-yard box.
Anderson recorded the game-winning goal, her team-leading seventh of the season, for the Paladins in the 87
th minute to make the score 3-2 off the assist from
Isabella Gutierrez. Gutierrez's initial attempt near side hit the right post but Anderson gathered the ball off the rebound. Anderson scored into an empty net off the one-timer from 15 yards out.
Gaither finished the game with a career-high four points on her two goals. Anderson and Gutierrez both led Furman with eight shots apiece while Anderson had a game-high seven attempts on goal. Goalkeeper
Addison Corn earned the win after recording two saves.
Flanagan, Edwards-Robinson and Maggie Bechman all had two shots for VMI. Edwards-Robinson tallied two attempts on net. Keydet goalkeeper Jillian Hall collected 17 saves.
The Paladins took a season-high 35 shots in the contest and held a 20-4 advantage in attempts on goal. Furman also led 12-1 in corner kicks.
The Paladins play their final home game of the season on Sunday afternoon hosting UNC Greensboro at 2 p.m. on Senior Day.