MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Faulkner's women's soccer team reached new heights in a historic 1-0 win Thursday night over Mobile in the SSAC quarterfinals, picking up its 10th win of the season for the first time since 2011.

In the first postseason game for the fourth-seeded Lady Eagles (10-5-2) on campus in program history, the defense held its eighth clean sheet of the season on the back of some heroic tackles and some superhuman saves from Keila Cardeiro especially as the fifth-seeded Rams (8-7-2) ramped up the attack, firing 12 shots in the second half to Faulkner's four to hold up Laia Gonzalez's 19th minute goal.

The Spanish forward dove her head to a daring cross from Elodie Metho and found the ball and herself in the net for the match's lone goal in the 19th minute. The goal was her sixth of the season as well as Metho's sixth assist.

Cardeiro came up big with a diving save in the 82nd minute to save a shot from Carolina Martins Gomez destined for the bottom right corner but the save paled in comparison to her 90th minute save. The five-foot tall goalkeeper faced a high curler from outside the box from Martins Gomez. Cardeiro ranged from post to post and leaped into the upper left corner to rob the Ram midfielder of nicking a late equalizer. The seven saves she attributes to the approach in training. "I think that the training with Taylor [Holmberg] was really good. We practiced a lot in the week that we had off. I think that in my mind, everything came back with the training. The hard work is the key to victory."

The goalkeeping effort was aided by tremendous defensive efforts, especially some stellar tackles from Marta Gonzalez. The highlight for the match-winning goal scorer's twin sister came with a lead preserving slide tackle in the box, taking the ball from Mia Mugford to thwart a promising two-on-two attack with the Rams holding the better positioning. 

"I think they just worked hard and gave everything they've got through the last minute," Ndaira said. "I'm just so proud of them. They have worked so hard throughout the season and they deserve this moment."

Ndaira, who inherited a program that had won 13 matches in three seasons with just five conference wins, has taken his squad to just the fifth double-digit win season in program history. "It's huge. It goes to show how much work the players have put in and they have worked hard every single game and trained well and it shows."

The Lady Eagles, who before the season had only defeated Mobile once in the program's history, defeated the Rams twice this campaign and head to the SSAC semifinals for the second time since 2012 Wednesday against No. 5 William Carey at 11 a.m.  Read Full Article