It was a great Monday evening in Oxford for the Indianola Academy Lady Colonels soccer team.
For in their opening match of the Division III State Playoffs, the Lady Colonels earned an exciting 2-1 upset victory over Regents School of Oxford, the top seed from Division III-East.
Played in front of a large and vocal crowd of supporters from both schools, this victory over Regents School moved the IA squad into the semi-finals of the Division III State Championship Playoffs.
That match was played Thursday evening against Washington School in Greenville and essentially became an all-Division III-West contest.
The Lady Colonels, the No. 2 seed in their division, took a 7-8-2 record into that match against the top-seeded Lady Generals.
Results of the match were unavailable at press time.
The winner of this match will move on to the Division III State Championship game to be played at 1 p.m. next Monday and will be hosted by Hartfield Academy in Flowood.
While Washington School advanced to Thursday’s semi-final game with a victory over Kirk Academy of Grenada, the Lady Colonels and the Lady Lions battled at a fast pace up and down Oxford’s mTrade Park field.
With defense and excellent goalkeeping ruling a scoreless first half of play, it would be 17 minutes into the second half before that deadlock came to an end.
It was Mae Veazey recording the goal as the sophomore controlled a loose ball and sent it flying past the Lady Lions’ goalkeeper to give IA a 1-0 lead.
It would then take just over another five minutes of play for the Lady Colonels to post what would become the game-deciding goal.
With junior Hasie Ruth Donahoe providing an assist, sophomore Nyla Thomas’ nudge of the ball near the goal made its way into the back of the net.
Although the Lady Lions later used a penalty kick to close the score to a 2-1 margin, the IA defensive efforts repelled all of Regents School’s remaining attempts at scoring.
