Mackenzie George scored in the sixth minute at Hodges Stadium on Sunday, and the Carolina Ascent spent the next eighty-four minutes defending it. They beat Sporting Club Jacksonville 1-0 in front of 3,854 fans, ended Jacksonville's first season of professional women's soccer, and earned a trip to Lexington for Saturday's Gainbridge Super League final.
It will be the first championship match in club history.
The Goal
Carolina's first attacking sequence was a Mia Corbin corner kick in the second minute; Jacksonville goalkeeper Kaitlyn Parks saved it. The second sequence ended with the goal.
George, who had three regular-season goals, ran into the box on the right side with Jacksonville center back Georgia Brown defending. She made a give-and-go with Riley Parker, who returned the ball. George shot from six yards out, and the ball found the net through traffic.
"I had Riley Parker on the side, so I was like, 'Go!'" George told Soccer Sheet at halftime. "And she was going, and she's fast as heck, man. So I was like, 'Oh, it's us against the world.' And then she did exactly what we planned, and the rest was a goal."
Carolina was playing without its leading scorer, Rylee Baisden, who is injured.
What Jacksonville Could Not Do With the Ball
Jacksonville had the ball for most of the match — 57 percent possession by the final whistle — and took seventeen shots. Seven were on target. Thirteen came from inside the penalty area. None went in.
The back four did the work. Jill Aguilera, Meaghan Nally, Jenna Butler and Addisyn Merrick held the line for ninety minutes, with goalkeeper Sydney Martinez behind them. Martinez was named to the Super League's team of the month in both March and April. She earned the recognition again on Sunday.
Two minutes after halftime, Jacksonville's Baylee DeSmit broke through on a one-on-one; Martinez denied her. In the 60th minute, Sophia Boman struck from outside the area; Martinez stopped that too. In the 75th minute, Georgia Brown got her head on a Grace Phillpotts cross; Martinez held the header. When Sophie Jones, the Jacksonville captain, got her own head on a chance in the 90th minute, her header skimmed wide and the season ended.
Jacksonville had its own moments at the other end. Kaitlyn Parks tipped a Jenna Butler header onto the crossbar in the 23rd minute, denied Aguilera in the 55th, and lunged late to stop Audrey Coleman. Carolina hit the crossbar twice in the first half — head coach Philip Poole said so after the match — but couldn't double the lead. They didn't need to.
"They're super compact," Jones told the Florida Times-Union. "They clog the middle for sure. We were definitely trying to go around them, but they're super good at moving as a team and screening those passes."
The Second Win Over Jacksonville in Eight Days
This was the second time in eight days Carolina has beaten Sporting Jax.
The first came on Saturday, May 16, at American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, a 3-1 win in the regular-season finale that denied Jacksonville the Players' Shield — the trophy awarded for the best regular-season record. Lexington SC took the Shield instead on the same night by reaching 53 points. Carolina finished the regular season third at 51 points (15-7-6); Jacksonville finished second at 53 (16-7-5).
Poole pointed at that Lexington-Jacksonville result after the match. Specifically, he pointed at a penalty.
"The last two weekends we played against Jacksonville and they are a great team, well-coached, great organization, and we managed to come out on top," Poole said. "I feel for Jacksonville. With the penalty that was awarded to Lexington last week, Jacksonville should be the Players' Shield champions and should have some silverware. So I feel for them and I feel for the organization."
The May 16 win extended Carolina to an 11-match unbeaten run heading into Sunday — ten wins and a draw. The semifinal made it twelve straight without a loss.
Saturday in Lexington
Carolina now travels to Kentucky to face Lexington SC at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 30. The match will stream live on Peacock. Lexington reached the final by beating fourth-seeded Dallas Trinity FC 2-0 in the other semifinal on Saturday.
Last season, Lexington finished last in the league with a record of 4-18-6. This season, they finished first. Poole did not let the "worst-to-first" framing pass without a footnote.
"It's a completely different team," he said. "I think Lexington built a really great team this year, so it's not the same team as last year, we all know that. Good club, well-coached, great coach, great players. It's going to be another tough test."
Carolina is the only club to reach the playoffs in both seasons of the Gainbridge Super League. Last year, as the regular-season Shield winners, the Ascent lost to Fort Lauderdale United FC at home in the semifinal. Saturday in Lexington will be the club's first appearance in a championship match.
Jill Aguilera, the captain on the night and Carolina's primary set-piece taker, kept her assessment short.
"We've had ups and downs, we've found different ways to win and grinded through a lot of really, really tough games, and this was one of them," Aguilera said. "One more win to go."