After 100 minutes of play, Lady Mavs put out on penalty kicks
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Anderson County Head Soccer Coach Chris Curtain consoles Lady Mav Emma Leander after Saturday night’s Sectional loss to Signal Mountain. - Ken Leinart
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Anderson County’s Victoria Laster heads a ball away from Signal Mountain forwards in Saturday night’s Sectional game. - Ken Leinart
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Lady Mav Shelby Freyre jostles for position against Signal Mountain Saturday night during Sectional play at 130 Maverick Circle. - Ken Leinart
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Anderson County goalie Alyssa Wetherington was brilliant in goal for the Lady Mavs in the postseason. - Ken Leinart
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Anderson County’s Morgan Irwin follows the play while falling back on defense Saturday night against Signal Mountain. - Ken Leinart
After an impressive regular soccer season, it all came down to penalty kicks.
Anderson County’s Lady Mavericks took a deep run in the post season only to see the Signal Mountain Lady Eagles pull out a 3-2 win on penalty kicks Saturday night in Sectional play.
It may be one of the more-brutal ways to settle a tie in sports, but in the post season there can’t be a tie.
Neither team scored in regulation.
Lady Mav Alyssa Wetherington was brilliant in goal, wrapping up anything that came her way — including two Signal Mountain pushes that looked more like rugby scrums in front of the goal.
On one of those plays, Wetherington was a little slow getting up after smothering an attempt.
Anderson County had two break aways that almost handed the game to the Lady Mavs in regulation.
One attempt went inches wide right.
The other attempt was an exceptionally well played juke on the Lady Eagle goalie but the kick doinked off the top bar of the goal.
After two 10-minute overtime periods, the squads settled in for penalty kicks.
The Lady Mavs reached the Sectional with a road win over Livingston Academy Tuesday followd by win over Kingston last Thursday.
In regular season play the Lady Mavs were 8-2-1.
But they also played in a tournament in Murfreesboro early in the season where they had one tie and two losses — as well as an early tournament is Gatlinburg where they took two wins and one tie.
Add is the District 5 tournament (one win, one loss) and Anderson County was 11-5 with three ties.
Finishing with two more wins in the post season — and the loss in Sectional, Anderson County finished the season with a 13-6-3 record overall.