NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Lipscomb Women's Soccer stayed unbeaten in ASUN play and handed Bellarmine its first loss of the season Sunday afternoon, taking down the Knights 2-0 at the Lipscomb Soccer Complex.
The Bisons struck first in the 20th minute when Lauren Bennett played a wide ball to London De Fini, whose first-time header was slotted home by Hailey Johnson off a breakaway for her fourth goal of the year.
Bellarmine nearly equalized just before halftime, but goalkeeper Kaïna Cesar made a clutch save on a corner to preserve the lead heading into the break.
Lipscomb doubled the advantage early in the second half. De Fini delivered another dangerous ball, this time on a quick throw-in to Skylar Cole, who bent a shot into the bottom corner to make it 2-0 in the 51st minute.
The Bisons kept the pressure on with looks from Sadie Wilkinson, Maddy Rhodes, and Jaide-Simone Prejean, but Bellarmine's keeper came up with several strong saves to keep the scoreline close. The Knights nearly broke through with a strike off the crossbar, but Cesar stood tall once again to record her fourth shutout of the season.
Head coach Kevin O'Brien praised his team's performance in a complete effort:
"Yeah, so massive result from the girls today, really impressive from start to finish. We tasked them with, 'okay, it's going to be a tough team, undefeated team, team with some dynamic players, so we've got to be locked in from the start'. And they answered the call yet again, and I thought we were, at moments, dynamic in attack, at other moments I thought their shape caused us difficulty, and then in transition they were hard to defend, but overall of the 90 minutes, was just really pleased with how our girls performed, it was really awesome.
To start conference season with six points is exactly what any team wants to do, so we're grateful and have a little bit of a longer week this week so we can get a little bit of rest and then prepare for our travel partner, Austin Peay, right up the road, which is going to be a really tough game. Thanks for all the fans that came out on this beautiful Sunday."
With the win, Lipscomb improves to 6-3-1 overall and 2-0 in ASUN play, while Bellarmine drops to 7-1-2 (1-1 ASUN).
Up Next
The Bisons continue their ASUN slate on Sunday, September 28 vs Austin Peay, with kickoff set for 1 p.m. at the Lipscomb Soccer Complex.
